Unknown Game
by Styrr Cobalt Indigo
Summary: A girl falls into Wonderland, not knowing who-or what- she'll encounter, much less why she's there. When a mysterious message is heard in her head, what will happen next?
1. The Fall

**Ok. This is a long story. It takes a long time to actually figure out the problem. And it's kinda mushy, once you get into it. Sorry. I was really a crazed fangirl.**

Elizabeth wrapped up the present for the birthday party tonight, for her friend Claire. Claire was her best friend, though she hadn't been very nice recently. _Why am I even going, _Elizabeth wondered, _If she hasn't talked to me in over a month?_ She tromped down the stairs, pouting. Her purse bounced on her shoulder.

"Elizabeth... Why don't you have your shoes on? We're almost ready to go," her mother nagged. "Claire's one of your best friends! Why aren't you more happy about the invite?" That was her mother, always getting into her business. On the inside, her mean self replied, _Why am I not happy? Because this girl has been ignoring me and hanging out with the cliques for the past month._ She bit her lip, swallowing the words that threatened to spill out past her lips.

"Coming, Mom, jeez. I'm walking, remember? It's still light out. Kind of." She talked quietly, almost impossible to hear, but her mother was tuned into this sort of talk. "I'll text you when I get there." She drudged out the front door, slamming it to relieve some of her frustration.

"Yeah, like I want you to drive me there. You'll probably make me talk to her too." Elizabeth said to herself. This was one thing she had been dreading.

Her mind wandered while she walked, her eyes flicking back and forth. Her tall figure was slim, but she didn't wear very tight clothes, because they made her nervous, like everyone was watching her. Same with her cinnamon-colored hair, it always cascaded from her shoulders, reaching her lower back.

_I wonder who will be at this party. The clique girls and former friends like me?_ Elizabeth had never been popular, just a nerd in band. She didn't think she was nerdy, mostly other kids critiquing and stereotyping like they always did. She loved playing the flute, its delicate sounds like petals drifting in the breeze. Until someone messed up, or the conductor stopped the playing. Then the petals were crushed by a forklift.

Walking at a slow pace, hoping to be late, she reluctantly reached the front of Cadbury Drive. Unluckily for Elizabeth, her ex-best friend's house was right in front of her. There were party balloons strung across the front porch, silver crepe paper wrapped around trees like ugly candy canes. Then Claire burst out of the front door, wearing a black strapless dress, almost running over the tall red-haired girl. Elizabeth felt very plain next to her fancied-up friend.

"You're here! Thank god!" She gushed, looking happy, but her eyes betrayed her. There was guilt, and Elizabeth could tell it was guilt because of the way her smile faltered, then brightened again. _Probably because you're not in there spending time with your new idiot friends._

"Yeah, great, I'm here. Right..." Elizabeth awkwardly held out the present. Claire looked confused, her eyes completely lost. Then she beamed.

"Silly! You weren't supposed to bring a present! The invite said nothing to give! Nothing!" Claire laughed, a high-pitched dolphin sound.

"Well... we're such good friends and all, I thought I should still get you something." Elizabeth muttered. It showed how much she had even looked at the invite, besides the date and place.

"Come in, come in," Her friend's voice drifted away like it was coming from underwater. "So... here's everyone! Ahh, you look uncomfortable. You wanna take a breather?" Claire's words spilled out in an avalanche of letters. Then, she quietly whispered, "Please, I need to talk to you. Please."

Elizabeth blindly followed the black-clad girl into the backyard. It wasn't a very big backyard, only room enough for a small bed of flowers and a stone angel holding a bowl full of water. This grassy square brought back memories. Two girls in swimsuits, playing the sprinkler, getting bored, then venturing over the the angel to fill up the bowl with clean water and painting tears on the angel's face.

The two girls stuck out in the dying backyard, not speaking. Then the silence was interrupted.

"Look, Elizabeth, I've been meaning to talk to you, but those idiots won't let me get away. What's the matter? I'm sorry I haven't been speaking to you. I know you must be really mad at me, so when you're ready to talk, I'll be in my room." Claire spoke in a small voice, then her pitter-patter footsteps stopped when she reached the door, silenced by the rug in the house.

Elizabeth went over to the angel, which she had named Tristian long ago, for the tears than ran down its cheeks. The statue was firmly planted in the ground, so she leaned up against its wings and slid down its stone back. When she hit the leaf-covered ground, she started sobbing. _Why? Why did I ever come? I knew I was in for a guilt trip. Why, why, WHY was I so stupid?_ She wailed inside her mind. She reached out her hand to lift herself back off the ground, but the ground had vanished from under her. She tumbled into a dark, deep, indigo-colored hole. The sun had taken leave of the sky, leaving it a sweet periwinkle color.

"Hmm, well, this isn't a scary fall in the least. I wonder if this is how people thought if they fell down a well...?" She asked herself, then said, "I bet they were more frightened, because they knew where they were going. They were going into a hole filled with water and they would never get out. I-" She stopped herself. "Am... am I in a dream? Well, it certainly isn't a very scary dream. It's actually kind of nice." She went silent, thinking about what had happened. "Wait- this isn't a dream at all! I never fell asleep! I was crying! For obvious reasons, but still! I'm gonna DIE!" She screamed bloody murder on the last word.

Elizabeth hit the ground, hard. For a moment the world was a dizzying blend of colors, smells, and sounds. When she had the will to get up, she leaned against a tree. She didn't notice the bloody couple until they were right in front of her. When she did see them, she thought, _Holy freaking crap, I'm gonna die by these people._


	2. The Bloody Couple

**Since I had so much of it pre-written... like, twenty pages pre-written... *facepalm* I hope you don't hate it's guts... because I have a lot, lot, lot more. And by the way... Elizabeth is not me in any way, shape, or form. But she does have the inner voice thing like I do. **

"Well, Ace, it's not a maid, or a person trying to attack you. By my guess, it's an Outsider, love." A young girl's voice came from inside the cape's hood. She yanked off the hood, revealing a simple Mardi Gras mask and wrist-blades. She was shorter than the other figure, with short, reddish-brown hair, and amber-red eyes. When she took off the bloody cape, her clothes were black, a leather jacket and black jeans.

"You're right, Styrr. It's not any of the role holders, either. Where should we take her?" A man's voice, probably Ace's, sounded from inside the other cloak. He too took off the hood, the cape, and his own mask, showing black clothes with red trim and a large gold sword. He was tall, with light brown hair and red-amber eyes.

"I'm not sure... Are you sure it's an outsider? Wait..." The girl named Styrr pulled Elizabeth closer, then spun her 180˚. Styrr placed her hand on Elizabeth's back.

"Yep, it's an Outsider. I can feel her heartbeat. So... Where do we take her? Julius' place?" Styrr questioned Ace.

"Um, hello?" Elizabeth said in a small voice. Both brunette heads turned to look at her, eyebrows raised. "Um... Hi. I'm Elizabeth. Where am I? Who are you? And why the _hell _are you covered in blood?" She trembled on the last question.

"Well... for introductions, this sucks. Anyway, I'm Styrr, this is Ace. Just a little warning- Ace is mine. Try to steal him and you'll be left crippled." Styrr gazed lovingly at Ace. Elizabeth backed away a tiny bit.

"Yeah... right. We collect clocks for Julius, who fixed them. Except for you, and me. I'm an Outsider too, but I'm a different kind of Outsider, I've been taught be my darling here, and now I'm one of the best fighters in Wonderland, Ace is the best." She stopped, seemingly short of breath.

"Wait... I'm not the only one with a heartbeat?" Elizabeth questioned. This world was so odd!

"Yeah, I'm an Outsider too. From the other world. I have a heartbeat." Styrr grinned. "Ace likes to listen to it."

"The only reason she stayed is because she found me. I was lost... We're lost now too. You don't happen to know where the clock tower is, do you?" Ace looked confused, a smile still stuck to his mouth.

"Um... no. No I do not..." Elizabeth's inner voice said, _Wow. These two are freaks! And why are they covered in blood? They said they'd been collecting clocks... that's not a very bloody job._

After walking in the forest for over an hour, Elizabeth was tired. Tired, and her inner self, her idiot, she called it, was bubbling up inside her like boiling water. _Why are we still walking? Don't you know where you're going? God, I bet we'll be walking around for a million years! _Elizabeth thought angrily.

"It's right up here! Wait... this isn't Julius... aww, crap! It's Hatter Mansion again." Ace sounded disappointed. He stopped short of the large gate.

"Hey, look! It's onee-san! Hi onee-san!" Two little boys, one in red and one clad in blue, were standing in front of the gate holding large axes. The edge glittered hungrily and was spotted with blood. _Holy crap, does everyone carry weapons here? _Elizabeth thought.

"Hey Dee! Hi Dum! Had fun today?" Styrr ruffled both boys' black hair.

"Yeah! But the chickie rabbit made us come back here! We wanted to play some more! Now we have to work..." Dee and Dum looked put-out. "So... Another Outsider? Can we play with her? Pleeeeease?" The twins looked like dark-headed angels.

"Not if you're going to test out your knives on her..." Styrr looked around, alert, as a man came up to them. He had orange hair and ears, hare ears. He was accompanied by a shorter girl, about Styrr's height, in a purple dress with zippers on it. She had bright green eyes that lit up her face and long dark hair that fell in rivers down her back.

"Hey Emory, hey Elliot. What're you doing? Me and Ace are lost... can you show us to Julius' place?" Styrr laughed, Ace following suit.

"Styrr..." Emory rolled her eyes. "Again? You always manage to get lost. I don't even know how it's possible." She pointed them in the right direction. "The clock tower is _ that way_. The complete opposite you guys were walking!"

"Ahh, that's why we were so lost. Come on, Ace, we're taking the Outsider girl to the clock tower... Emoryyyyyyy, I'm staaaaaaarrrvvvvving. Can you pleeeeease get me some food?" Styrr went up to the black-haired girl with her head bowed.

"Ugh- again? You've been out... you're going to have to wait for food." Emory looked annoyed.

"Emoryyyy!" Styrr wailed. She looked pitiful next to Ace, Elliot, and Emory. "Pleeeeeeeease? Please?" She sniffed.

"God, Styrr, you're annoying... Still my best friend, but annoying. I'll get you some food." She stomped off, Elliot close behind.

"PLEASE GET ME SOME CARROT CAKE!" Styrr yelled after their retreating figures. She looked at Elizabeth, somehow forgetting the copper-haired tall girl was there. Elizabeth was good at blending in.

"So... Elizabeth? What were you doing? Before you came, I mean." The curious look on Styrr's face forced Elizabeth to tell her new friend. Supposed friend, Elizabeth wasn't so sure they were friends.

"Well, I was at a friend's birthday party, I was in the backyard." Elizabeth started.

"That totally sucks! I hate that! Well, I haven't been to Wonderland multiple times, but you get enough Outsiders here..." Styrr said. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

"If I may continue... We had not been very talkative to each other lately, and I was in the backyard. Leaning against Tristian. My friend, Claire's, stone angel."

"Oh... that blows. Well, okay... Do you have any idea why you came here? Your role in the game?"

"Game...?" Elizabeth found herself very confused.

By this time, Emory had stomped up to Styrr with a very mangled piece of carrot cake. "Here- take it and GO." Emory said forcefully.

"Emory, why's it all torn up? Did you kill it with your finger-knives?" Styrr pouted to her friend.

"No, I stabbed it with a fork. Now leave. Goodbye. Hasta la vista. Go already!" Emory said impatiently. Her gaze did not linger on Styrr for long, but traveled to Elliot, and whispered something in his ear that made both of them go pink.

"Jeez," the black-clad girl said. "C'mon Ace, Elizabeth, let's go." Styrr growled to the party-dressed pair. "You think she's that unhappy?"

"Wait, Styrr. Hey, I have a question here!" Elizabeth said impatiently. Then she realized: she had let her mean self through. "I mean, is Emory an Outsider? You two know each other pretty well..." Psychically, she slapped herself.

"Oh, well... it's a long story, but we were best friends before we came here too. She's an Outsider, kind of. Like me, I didn't explain before. Her original role was to be the next Queen, but she was switched out. We gave up our roles in the game to assume a new role, so we can't ever finish the game unless we return to out original role. Not like I'd ever do that. Neither would Emory. We're perfectly happy where we are." At this, Ace wore a sly smile on his face.

After walking through the forest again, for about another hour or two. _Jesus, these people SUCK at directions! _Elizabeth's inner self snapped. She slowed down.

"Hey... Styrr? When will we get there?" Elizabeth questioned the girl walking in front of her and holding hands with Ace. Styrr pivoted.

"Um... well, you see... we're lost. Really lost. So we're camping here tonight, 'kay?" She explained cheerfully. "So let's set up!"

Ace suddenly started searching through his pockets while Elizabeth asked, "How will we camp here if we have no tent? No sleeping bags? What about food?" Styrr only looked at her like she was crazy, then motioned with her finger to wait. Elizabeth looked around. The sky was a dark, inky color while the stars glittered like crystals in an obsidian rock. There was a _whoosh_ sound, and she spun around quickly.

There was a tent sitting in the clearing where they had stopped. Ace and Styrr were beside it, waiting for her to come in.

Elizabeth walked inside with awe. _Where the heck did this come from? _She asked herself. There were three sleeping bags and a lantern on the floor.

"How the hell did this get here?" She asked Ace. He only grinned a grin.

"Well, I always carry around a tent with me... so I don't have to sleep on dirt when I get lost," he explained. "Luckily, now I haven't had to camp alone in a long time." He glanced at Styrr. She smiled in reply, taking off her leather jacket to reveal a black tank top. Elizabeth pondered, _I wonder how tonight will be like. I hope they won't be awake all night. That would really suck. _She crawled under her blankets, fuzzy as ever. Styrr was in the middle, with Ace on her right and Elizabeth on her left. The lamp, however, had different ideas, and stayed lit, to everyone's annoyance, especially Elizabeth's. _Shut off, Lamp, before I come and shut you off by myself. _Her inner voice snarled.

Finally the light flickered off, and the tent was silent. No one was asleep, though, Elizabeth knew because of their breathing, it was too fast for them to be asleep. Then a flurry of movement, a swishing sound, like leaves over cold ground. Elizabeth couldn't turn around without raising suspicion, so all she could do was guess. Her guess was nothing close to reality, but she guess that one of the two people had slid down, or turned in a different direction.

**I told you... it was gonna be mushy. Blame my inner fangirl for Ace.**


	3. Meet the Clock People

**Ok. I had to change the original story a bit, because I had it all prewritten, then I trashed a bunch of stuff I know you didn't want to read, and rewrote this bit. It's not perfect. And guess what, people, I'm trying to not make Elizabeth a Mary-Sue. I actually hate the name Mary. It annoys me.**

When Elizabeth woke up, the sun was shining bright, even though she had only slept for a few hours. It couldn't have been that long, so she went out to stretch. She passed Ace and Styrr and immediately knew what the noise had been. Ace was passed out with his long arms wrapped around Styrr's small frame. They were still in individual sleeping bags, though.

Once Elizabeth got outside, she wished she had brought a jacket. There was no wind, but it wasn't exactly warm. She marched back into the tent. Styrr was trapped, under Ace's arms. Her eyes were drooping lazily, she seemed not to notice what had happened or she was enjoying it. He was still sleeping. Elizabeth didn't want to disturb them, so she went back outside. She leaned against a thick tree trunk, tuned in to every sound around her. She heard a noise behind her, and turned around so fast she nearly fell over. When she righted herself, she was facing a man, with an eye patch and maroon hair and a clown hat. Then he spoke.

"Who are you?" The question hung in the empty air like a feather trapped in place, still floating. Elizabeth certainly didn't want to tell him her name, so she replied, "Not until you tell me yours, you creeper." At this remark, he just smiled. His smile, though cheerful, did not reach his eyes, which remained stone cold.

"I'm Joker, and this is Joker." He pointed to a small black and white mask. "Now, what's your name?" The man's hat jingled quietly. From inside the tent, Elizabeth heard a fit of coughing. She worried about Styrr, but she was held in place by the gaze of the person in front of her.

"Well, um, I'm... Elizabeth. Not telling you my last name, but I'm Elizabeth." Elizabeth's face was burning, and she felt dizzy. There was a loud noise in her head, like the beat of drums.

Joker smiled, this time with his smile lighting up his eyes like sparklers. He seemed amused at something. Then he laughed. Elizabeth didn't know if it was her, but her face flushed even redder than before. She realized that he wasn't looking at her, rather past her. She swiveled around, facing the tent.

Ace and Styrr had seemingly just gotten up. Ace's hair stuck up all over his head, and Styrr's eyes were still half- lidded. The girl in the tank top was leaning against Ace. When she drifted off to sleep accidentally, Ace caught her as she fell and swept her up into his arms. Joker laughed.

"Well, this isn't a scene at all," he said, amused. There was a look on his face that she couldn't quite decipher. "Come on, we'll take you to the tower." He strode off into the distance, leaving them all behind.

"Wait up!" Elizabeth called after him. "How do you know Styrr and Ace?" _Not that they weren't hard to miss_, she thought darkly. _Covered in blood like they were._

"Well, Styrr was my first trainee, when she dropped into Wonderland her role was to be my jail guard, but then she found Ace and he taught her, and they are in love, as you have probably guessed. They get lost a LOT, so they end up at my place a lot too. Also, Styrr frequently has these attacks that land her at my circus, too." He turned to look at her. "When it's convenient, at least." Elizabeth thought about this, and when she had been silent for a long time (it seemed to her), she spoke again.

"Well, I thought you liked her, but now I see it's more of a sister-type relationship. You are very concerned for her well-being. I could see it on your face." Elizabeth stared at a tower, noticing that there were sunset- red and orange rays shooting across the sky. Then surprise crept across her face as the sunset turned into pitch-black night. "What... what just happened? Why did the sunset turn into midnight?" She looked at Joker expectantly, while her inner self ordered, _Explanation, now!_ He just laughed.

"The time periods change randomly here. You could be sleeping at noon, or having a tea party at night. No one knows which one will be next except for Vivaldi, the Queen of Hearts. Dusk is her favorite, so expect it often." Elizabeth stared at the sky with amazement.

"So... you run a circus?" asked Elizabeth suddenly. He stared at her.

"What? Right. Yeah, a circus. We do all kinds of things there. You should come! Please do." Joker blushed, his eyes guilty, screaming, _Crap! Why did I say it THAT way?_ Elizabeth knew because she did it all the time. She just smiled pleasantly and started humming. Joker looked at her like she was crazy.

"Where are we?" Elizabeth asked. They had arrived at a tower that remotely resembled a weight.

"This is the Clock Tower." Joker said tonelessly. "Julius lives here. With Leanne." At the end of the sentence, two figures appeared- one with long, blue hair and one with silver.

"Hello..." Elizabeth said, her voice trailing off into a whisper. She suddenly felt drained. "I'm gonna... go over here now." She went over to a tree with a thick trunk and leaned against it, eyes closed. She suddenly thought of Claire and felt guilty, again.

A snaky hissing noise started in her ear, like the slithering of a giant serpent. It was so loud it was deafening, but it was also so quiet she had to strain to hear the sound. She saw a black swirling abyss, and a collection of objects- a broken violin scroll, a torn zipper with ripped pink, the tattered fabric of a messenger hat. Among the objects were also a few broken petals off a bloodred rose, a single bullet shell, and the gears to a watch. Then her vision cleared, and she saw nothing but the people in front of her.

"Dammit! Guys!" Elizabeth nearly screamed. "Something important's gonna happen!" When everyone looked at her strangely, she blushed. "I saw something," she confessed, feeling like she was telling a huge secret to everyone. "I saw black. Black swirly stuff." She reddened. "And some other objects." Elizabeth's face felt like it was redder than a fire engine. Everyone was still staring.

"Well, if that doesn't clarify anything, I don't know what does." Joker grinned slightly. Elizabeth rolled her eyes. _This guy..._ she thought, half angrily, half something else.

"Come on. Let's have you go meet the mafia." At this, Elizabeth's eyes widened at Joker's casual tone. He took her hand- non romantically, she was sure- and pulled her down the steps, back into the woods.


	4. The Mafia, apparently, loves carrots

**Another day, another chapter- is anyone else surprised that it's already August? Special surprise for people back home (and you know who you are) beware August. Beware it! Sometimes, my friends make it so hard to give mysterious messages. Seriously, Sally, it's not that hard, take my advice and beware it! Sorry, a little off-topic. A new chapter for August 1st!**

"Joker- JOKER! Ah-hem... the MAFIA? Aren't those the bad guys who try to murder everyone?" Elizabeth said worriedly. Joker laughed. "Uh, yeah. Well, kind of." Elizabeth was left, imagining buff, mean-looking guys with stubble, bald bandanna-bound heads and murderous glances. She ran up to Joker again. "Excuse me, again, THE MAFIA?" She nearly screamed. He was looking at her with a weird look. "Yeah. Elliot, Blood, Dee and Dum. You've already met everyone except Blood. He's the main mafia dude." Puzzled, she asked him, "Elliot's in the mafia? And those two sweet little twins?" At this, his smile grew, twisted. "Sweet? Dee and Dum are anything but sweet." His eyes sparkled, and Elizabeth went redder than a tomato. They walked the rest of the way in silence.

Emory and Elliot were waiting at the gate. Emory made a disgusted noise. "Lost again?" She asked, rolling her eyes. Styrr ran to her and hugged her- well, not really hugged, more like football tackled. Offhandedly, Elizabeth wondered if Styrr had ever caused an injury to someone she didn't despise with her entire soul.

"No, Emory! We're here for a tea party! Elizabeth hasn't met Blood yet..." Styrr said. "Not that she needs to." She said the last words in an undertone, looking darkly to the mansion. Elliot lightly smacked her. "Hey," he warned, "He's my boss, idiot." She only smiled.

Gradually, everyone made their way into the mansion. When they were all inside, they stared at each other. Faceless maids scurried around the place like chittering birds. Except they didn't have feathers, or beaks, and Elizabeth doubted they ate worms.

"So... let's get fancy!" Styrr said excitedly. Everyone looked at her like she was insane. Again, Elizabeth wondered if she was insane, just a bit. Then she wondered if anyone else had ever thought that. Elizabeth had stood there with an idiotic look on her face while everyone else rushed to get their "fancy" clothes on. She felt stupid, standing in a room with no one around. Suddenly, a pair of hands had grabbed her shoulders. _Oh, crap. _She thought. _I'm being kidnapped because I was spacing out like a ditz. Now I'll really pay. _

Fortunately, she hadn't been kidnapped. Elizabeth had been rushed into a room, changed, and rushed back out in the blink of an eye. She hadn't even thanked the maids, but they had already scurried off to do more work. She looked down at her dress. It was a silvery-white color, the color of a unicorn's horn. It was slim, and showed off her figure. Elizabeth was very self-conscious wearing it.

She stepped out into the courtyard, where everyone else was waiting. There was a man she had never met before, in a white suit and a top hat. Emory was in a different dress, a strapless black dress with a long flowy skirt. Elliot was also wearing a white suit. Ace was in his coat, but more formal with black trim, and Styrr was wearing a strapless blue dress with black ribbon around the edges and elbow-length gloves. Elizabeth notices two sheaths on her upper arms with daggers in them- she had not bothered to take them off. The shape of the blade made her want to sit as far away as possible.

The Joker came out.

He was dressed in all black, it looked like a tuxedo. He wasn't wearing his circus hat anymore, so his maroon hair stuck up all over the place. He smiled at Elizabeth, then winked and sat down. She couldn't stop staring.

"Excuse me, Outsider, what is your name?" The man with the top hat asked her. She jerked her head towards him, trying to get her mouth to work. He had black hair, which was messy, and he had green eyes. _He's the mafia? _She tried to ask, but no one was paying very much attention to her. _He looks... like a cross between a black cat, and a raven. _

"I- I'm Elizabeth. You must be Blood Dupre..." Elizabeth stuttered. "Pleased to have your acquaintance." She slowly sat down beside Elliot, Emory on his left. Blood smiled, and Elizabeth wondered what he was thinking about.

"Well, everyone here seems to know Elizabeth, so let's cut straight to the chase. It's a tea party, but I have to ask you one question, an awkward one too. When are you leaving? Because I don't want to have you stay for the night without me knowing." As he said this, he looked straight at Ace. The knight only smiled in return.

"I have a show tonight." Joker said tonelessly, like no one cared. Elizabeth wanted to run to him and bounce up on her toes, with stereotypical hearts in her eyes, saying, "I'll come Joker I know it's gonna be awesome and I'll love it..." She almost had to hold herself back from jumping over the table.

"Actually, I was planning to do some work this evening, so have fun." He looked exasperated, but work was work, after all. Elizabeth was secretly glad he wasn't coming.

"I'll be sad to leave you," Joker proclaimed, "Because I have a special show tonight. But what happens is a secret, so you can't know." He put a finger to his lips and made a _shh_-ing gesture. "But you'll all come, right?"

"Yeah, whatever, sure," everyone chimed in. No one sounded very ecstatic about it. There was another moment of awkward silence.

"Okay! Carrot party is ON!" Elliot yelled from beside her. Elizabeth jumped, wincing at the sound. "Come on, Emory! Let's get the cake! And everything else!" While the carrot-loving fanatics went off to get the food, Elizabeth leaned back in her chair, resting for the first time in a while. She closed her eyes, feeling the sun on her face, and visualizing Joker on the trapieze, Joker taming lions, Joker sawing people in half. She was almost done with her little mental circus when... "Hello? Elizabeth?" Blood had started staring off into the distance, and Styrr was trying to get her attention from the other side of the table. "The carrot party's starting!" Blood groaned, looking off into the distance. _Is he depressed or something? _She asked herself, and made a mental note to ask someone later. Then she noticed... all the orange.

Elliot and Emory had appeared miraculously with carrot cake, carrot compote, and everything else with the word "carrot" in it. _Holy crap, when did they make all THIS? _She asked herself in wonder. _And how did they bring it here all by themselves? _

"Yeah! Gimme a slice of that carrot cake, Emory-chan. I love that stuff, it's the best!" Styrr declared joyously, then started eating it in delicate little bites. Only the cake part, though, because she was saving the icing for last. In a few minutes, it resembled a popped balloon made of icing.

"Hey, Elizabeth, want some carrot cake? It's the best yet!" Emory shoved the cake under her nose. "Try it!" Elizabeth reached for the cake, then set it down at her place. After everyone was settled, the table quieted down a little. The man named Blood was sipping his tea, probably his third or fourth cup, judging from the empty ones beside his plate. Styrr was eating the icing off cake- and it wasn't her cake, it was Ace's. Elliot and Emory were looking really excited... for no reason at all besides that it was a carrot party. Emory had a piece of strange-looking pie and Elliot had some carrot pudding. _I never knew you could make this many carrot dishes- this is more than I thought even existed! _Elizabeth was amazed. This party was completely orange, except for the people.

"So... how is everything? Delicious? Oh, yeah, I already knew it was. Thanks!" Emory was talking so fast her words blurred together. "I love carrots!" She blurted.

"Emory- stop, Emory!" Styrr cried, "Have you recently had any coffee? You're speaking so fast I can't even understand you!" The girl with the black hair only grinned, showing all her teeth. For some reason, even though it was friendly, Elizabeth shrank back. She didn't know that all of these people were this violent.

"Anyway... this carrot party is over. Almost, at least. So everyone LEAVE!" Emory shouted, waving her arms in the air. "Go to Joker's circus or something! Just go! Bye!" Elizabeth felt herself being pulled by Joker's hand. She blushed again, everything showing on her pale face. She felt her dress weighing her down as she stumbled across the yard.

"That was a short party," she noted, looking pointedly at Joker. They were alone, standing in the forest. "Where did they go?" Joker asked her, staring into the blackness. "Umm... I dunno..." Elizabeth replied, feeling stupid. She was alone... with Joker... and the mental images came, possible or impossible, she didn't know. She and Joker holding hands. She and Joker sharing spaghetti like Lady and the Tramp. She and Joker watching sunsets. She and Joker kissing.

"Oh!" She gasped, snapping out of her reverie. She blushed, looking around for some excuse. Fortunately, Ace's red coat was visible just ahead. There was also a red blob that was Styrr's head. She ran towards them, stopping halfway through. Joker was right behind her. "Wait... where are they going?" Joker asked no one in particular. They had started going back towards the mansion. _They really are directionally challenged! Those idiots! _Elizabeth's inner self said. "Hey!" She yelled at them. It got all the more annoying when both of them looked around and smiled.

"Hey~" they said, in unison, and in a singy-song voice. Grabbing Ace's hand while Joker grabbed Styrr's, she and Joker dragged them away from the mafia mansion and towards Joker's circus.

***cowers* PLEASE DON'T KILL ME FOR MAKING ELLIOT WITH EMORY. And for those fangirls, that fangirl over Ace... I don't care, as I would be one of those people. I am currently collecting all the Ace of Heart cards from every deck of cards we own in this house. It might prove problematic in the future.**


	5. A Confession?

**Ok... Um... here I am, and Styrr is being an idiot again in this chapter... I forgot to say, I OWN NOTHING. Though I would like to. This is the longest chapter yet... don't kill me if I overwhelm you...**

"Wow! That's amazing!" gasped Elizabeth. The circus before her was lit up- lights flashing, neons blinding her with colors. Balloons were tied to the staircase with colors like red-blood, sea-blue, forest-green and crayon yellow. She ran towards the brightly lit stadium. Ace, Styrr, and Joker followed her.

"Hey, do any of you know where Emory-chan is? She told me she'd meet us here." Styrr, once again being talkative, was asking anyone she could find. "Wait! There she is!" The raven-haired damsel was holding hands with her ginger-haired sweetheart. She waved happily.

"Hey Emory-chan!" Styrr yelled out from beside her, and Elizabeth jumped. _I didn't realize such a small girl could have such a loud voice. _Styrr looked at her, saying, "Sorry! Ahh, I didn't realize you were there! I yell loud! Really loud. Sorry, sorry..." She trailed off, as Ace sneakily came up behind her. The tall knight put his hands over her eyes and said, "Guess who?" In a voice that made her laugh.

"Hm... well, it's not Elizabeth, it's not a stalker... I guess it's my favorite knight! What's my prize?" She removed his hands to look at him expectantly. He looked clueless. "I know what it is! Come closer... closer..." Elizabeth trotted away, knowing what the red-haired girl was about to do. She ran up to Elliot and Emory.

"So... hi guys! Um... right. Styrr and Ace are back there, they'll be coming soon." Elizabeth explained in a rush. "So you might want to go get them before they get lost." At this statement both lovebirds grinned.

"It almost seems like you know everything!" Emory said with an even bigger smile. "Hey Joker! Go get the other idiots!" She jerked her thumb towards the couple who had been left behind.

"Ahh, why do I have to do it?" Joker pouted, still wearing his tuxedo. "And I have to get ready and all- don't you feel guilty making me do all this?" He made a failed puppy-dog face.

"No. I don't feel a thing. Now go get them!" Emory issued orders like a drill sergeant. Joker reluctantly went to get Styrr and Ace.

Joker was feeling particularly idiotic now, why had he given in to Emory, especially with Elizabeth around? He was trying to impress her, after all. He was doing this big production for her too, and he hoped it would go well.

"That... was not very nice," he muttered to himself as he walked towards the red pair. "Hey, idiots, come on. The show's gonna start soon." He glared at them.

"Well, I don't know... I'm having a good time here." Ace said thoughtfully. Styrr only laughed beside him. "Well, I guess we'll go. Come on, fighter angel." Joker rolled his eyes at the nickname. Appropriate as it was for the small assassin, he didn't think it was necessary. Well, fighter was appropriate, but he wasn't so sure about "angel".

"Come on, airheads. Let's actually go _to the circus_ today." Joker took ahold of Ace's collar and dragged him towards the circus, and he dragged Styrr along with him as he laughed. She laughed too.

Joker caught up with Emory, and she was laughing alongside Elizabeth. Elizabeth seemed to be telling a story- her face lit up like a christmas tree and her eyes sparkled. Anyone could tell she was excited. Joker hated to take this away from her, but if he didn't get the show started, he would get some bad blood.

"'Scuse me," he started, "But seeing as the circus is almost starting, can we please go in there?" At this, Styrr shuddered visibly and Elizabeth looked at her, confused.

"We're going. Inside. Now." Styrr said, forcefully. Emory agreed and took her by the back of her jacket. "Whaaa~?" Elliot did the same to Ace.

"Just so you don't get lost..." Emory muttered under her breath. At that, her friend just laughed.

Once inside the stadium, when the other people were in the audience, Joker changed into his circus coat and threw his tux into a pile. _Not gonna need _that_ anytime soon, _Black Joker whispered to him. _Since Elizabeth doesn't want you._

He brushed his red hair from his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," he shouted. "Tonight, you are about to witness..."

Elizabeth watched from high up in the audience, and Styrr was as nervous as ever. Still, Elizabeth wasn't paying any attention to her, she was just waiting for Joker to come out of the curtains. She was anxious to see him, as circus master, performing for all these people.

"-abeth. Elizabeth. Hello?" Emory's face was right next to hers. Elizabeth backed up, startled. "What is with you?" Emory looked quizzical. "Oh. My. God. I know what's with you. You like Joker, don't you?" When Elizabeth reddened, Emory looked excited. "I knew it! Everyone was watching you at the tea party, but I was watching your face- I mean, everyone here falls in love with someone, but I didn't know who you liked- but when Joker came out, if you could have been screaming, 'I love you' you would have right then. You liked him when you first met, didn't you?" Elizabeth still didn't respond. Finally, she answered.

"Yeah," she found herself admitting. "I do like him." Her face reddened more.

"Where did you meet him?" Styrr came over to Elizabeth's side. "When? Didn't he creep you out a little?" Styrr looked excited, so Elizabeth caved into the girl.

"Well," she started, uncomfortable with all the attention. "I had woken up from getting lost," she shot a dagger glare at Styrr. "And I went outside, because I didn't want to wake you guys up. So I got outside, and I was walking around, then I ran in to Joker. And I was a little freaked out... Not because of his mask or whatever, mostly because he scared the crap out of me. Then he asked me his name, and I _think_ I amused him by telling him he was a creeper-" Elizabeth broke off, because Styrr and Emory had both started laughing, loudly. A flush creeped up Elizbeth's neck.

"You called him a stalker? After all that happened, you called _him_ a stalker? Hahaha!" Styrr laughed harder, so did Emory.

"I can't believe this..." said Emory. "You called your boyfriend-to-be a stalker!"

"Hey! I didn't know him! In that case, when a freaking stranger comes up and asks me my name, of course I think they're a stalker! I thought you," she pointed at Styrr, "were a freaking _mass murderer _who was gonna rip my head off. Instead, you got me lost with you and your yandere boyfriend. Who knew?" She looked around, her newfound friends still having after-affect giggles. "And who said boyfriend?" Elizabeth whispered, annoyed. "I'm currently... uh... single?" At this, they both started laughing again.

"You're not single! At least, you won't be for long! 'Cuz Joker liiiiiiiiikes you!" Emory said, with a malicious smile on her face. Styrr glanced at her best friend, who glanced back.

"Okay.. we're gonna help you get with Joker," Styrr proclaimed. Emory smiled widely.

"No! No, no, no no no! I'm doing fine on my own..." Elizabeth struggled to keep her voice a whisper. "Don't help," she begged. Emory's smile drooped.

"Well, just stand in the freaking corner of backstage circus after it's over and wait until he comes out," Emory growled. "It's not that freaking hard."

Styrr's attention was caught by the flashing lights.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight you are about to witness a special event. Could I have someone from the audience?" Joker's eyes searched the bleachers until they found Elizabeth. "You, Ma'am! Please come down from the audience!" He laughed. "No need to be shy!" Elizabeth stumbled down the stairs into the spotlight. Her face grew scarlet- a really red rosy color. Even more than she was before.

"_Joker!_" She hissed. _"What is wrong with you?_" The audience couldn't hear, but they sensed hostility. A few faceless members laughed.

"Tell them your name, Ma'am." Joker said with a grin. "Go on." Elizabeth scowled a scowl her little brother would be proud of.

"My name is Elizabeth," she said, still glowering. "And I have no idea why this guy-" she pointed at Joker, "picked _me_ from the audience." The audience laughed again, harder this time. Joker laughed as well.

"Well, Miss Elizabeth, just stand over there, close your eyes, and think of whatever you people think about. Think of Russia. Prussia. Think of cheese for all I care!" Joker's eyes sparkled as he instructed her into a small, chalk-drawn circle. Elizabeth still muttering to herself.

"I'm gonna think of something, all right. I'm gonna think of stabbing you for making me do this." Elizabeth muttered, only loud enough for Joker to hear. He still smiled on, eyes looking like stars. Elizabeth wanted to hold his hand badly, but she pushed away the image and the urge. She stomped over to the chalk-drawn circle, and closed her eyes tight, but all she saw behind her eyelids was an angelic white light. She started imagining random little cats and mice chasing each other. The cat, apparently, was purple.

"Okay, people, I'm gonna put this behind Miss Elizabeth's head," Joker started in a grave, yet amused voice, "And then I'll throw these at the target. Don't worry, I don't miss." Elizabeth grew worried for a second. _What do you mean, you don't miss?_ she asked herself silently. She felt air whip past her face, and a _zing~ _as something that sounded sharp and dangerous struck the board behind her. The crowd gasped.

He was throwing knives at her. At this particular time, Elizabeth started to panic, except this kind of panic was not freak-out-flailing-arms panic. This panic was, if-I-move-I-will-die panic. She grew still, as if she had been petrified. She shut her eyes tighter- and hoped Joker really wouldn't miss.

Joker threw one, two, three more daggers that almost missed her face- cutting little snippets of her hair with each blade. She gasped, barely audible, but she heard the last dagger hit the board, and sighed. She opened her eyes. The audience was clapping like crazy, and Elizabeth gave Joker a stare that said, "I'll get you back for this." Elizabeth stomped up into the audience, then sat with the two other girls, arms crossed. Both were silent.

Then- "Wow, Elizabeth! I can't believe you! You actually stood there- and of course, Joker never misses- but still, you were like, petrified! Well, you might have actually been petrified, but you looked calm on the outside." Styrr's words came out in a rush. Emory looked amazed.

"Holy... effing... crap... I don't care if I like him, that guy is going down! Why would he do that? Oh my freaking God... that was so scary, I thought I was going to die. I mean, seriously, he was throwing knives at me." Elizabeeth shivered. "What would happen if he did miss?" Styrr and Emory exchanged nervous glances.

"Oh, nothing. Nothing at all." Emory said joyfully. "Let's go!" As they pulled her away from the bright circus, Elizabeth started to wonder where they had left their boyfriends.

"Hmm? What?" Styrr and Emory said in unison, leaving Elizabeth to realize she had spoken aloud. "Oh no..."

"Ace!"

"Elliot!"

"Where are you?" Both girls screamed. They ran back towards the circus, leaving Elizabeth alone. She was spacing out until she saw a tall person in front of her. "Hello, Elizabeth." The person said warmly.

It was Joker. Smiling as ever, but she was still mad at him. He sat down, patted the empty space beside him, and waited patiently. Elizabeth could feel herself blushing.

"I am SO freaking mad at you right now. You threw knives at me! And you almost hit me! IN THE FREAKING FACE!" Elizabeth was screaming. Then she blushed redder and almost dropped to the ground. "Sorry. I exploded... it's something I do." Joker smiled, sheepishly, for once.

"Well, was I going to let you know I was going to throw stuff at you? You would have freaked- and almost make me miss. And that, my dear pissed little girl, would have make me miss. And that would have been very- VERY- bad." Joker's eyes were indignant, then he closed them and leaned back.

"Violence is not the answer. Peace and love and all that crap." Elizabeth said, accusingly. "Wait- I take that back. I don't want to be a hippie preacher. Not that I have anything against hippies. Or religious people. You know, just forgot I said something."

"Well, it's not like I've heard a preacher before, unless you count Styrr telling me how much she loves that assassin of hers, which took about an hour." He rolled his eyes. "That was one hour of my life I could have been doing something worthwhile." Elizabeth laughed too. She tried to stop the movie- but it was already there, in her mind. Styrr, standing up to Joker, even though she was shorter than him, and taking an hour to talk about how she loves Ace. _'Blah blah blah blah Ace blah blah Ace blah"_ was probably all that anyone could have heard.

"Well, isn't this romantic." A powerful, commanding voice sounded above her. "We do enjoy watching you two." Elizabeth looked up, seeing a woman with purple curly hair and a large, elaborate dress. The woman carried herself with dignity, also taking a cane with her as she walked along. More like a scepter, though, since she didn't use it at all. "What is your name, Outsider?" Elizabeth felt she was being shrinking with every word.

"Um, my name is Elizabeth." She said, voice sounding muffled. "Are you Vivaldi?" She guessed from the dress and the scepter, that this must be a queen.

"You are correct, our name is Vivaldi. We rule the Heart Castle." Elizabeth felt the queen's gaze on her. "You are not as cute as some, but you will suffice. Do you want to join us for tea? You would not do well to refuse us." The Queen of Hearts added menacingly. Elizabeth gulped.

"Yeah, sure, I'll join you for tea... um, when?" Elizabeth muttered. "'Cuz I'm waiting for a couple people..." Vivaldi smiled.

"We know, we were watching you during the circus. You were with the assassin girl and the mafia girl. Styrr and Emory." Vivaldi patted Elizabeth's head. "Tomorrow, come to our palace when you wake. And do not," she warned, "travel with the knight and the girl. You will make us impatient." The queen walked away, chin held high.

_Okay... um... she seems... nice._ Her inner idiot said. Elizabeth looked around, trying to spot Emory, or maybe even Styrr. They were nowhere in sight, and Joker was no longer beside her. _Hmm, I guess he left when the queen came._ Elizabeth concluded. She wandered aimlessly around the circus grounds, finally seeing Emory. She seemed to be struggling with something- no, someone. Styrr was trying to pull towards a stand where they were selling lemonade. She was laughing, too, trying to say, "I want some lemonade, Emory-chan! Please?" But Emory was still pulling her away, obviously mad that she hadn't found Elliot. Styrr didn't seem to worried, but that was her. Elizabeth was pretty sure she was a little crazy.

Joker clapped a hand on her shoulder, and she jumped. "Oh my gosh, _don't _do that." She said, startled. Behind Joker was Ace and Elliot. Ace looked confused, and Elliot looked about ready to shoot him. Elizabeth almost laughed.

"Ace!" Styrr called to the knight. "I want lemonade! Emory won't get me any!" She was still struggling, and Emory was still pulling her away.

"Elliot! Help me with this!" Elliot rushed to Emory's side, unsure of what to do. He looked at Ace expectantly, saying, "Get your girlfriend." Ace smiled, as he always did, and went to pull Styrr away from the lemonade- which probably would make her really, really hyper. Hyper+Styrr= NOT GOOD, as far as Elizabeth could tell.

After the fiasco was over, Joker started leading into the forest. Elliot and Emory went a different way to get to the mansion, but they probably did it for another reason too. The only reason Joker was with Ace and Styrr and herself was because the couple had no sense of direction, and therefore he had to lead them through the forest. Poor Joker, wandering up there all alone... _I can't think that..._ Elizabeth told herself. She walked, back straight, a little behind Ace and Styrr. She was beginning to zone out while walking, an amazing feat for her, when she stumbled into a tree.

"Aww! Freaking tree!" Elizabeth blinked and clung to a branch so she wouldn't fall. She exhaled sharply, cursed the tree again, and let go of the branch. When she heard laughter ahead, she blushed. She walked, head down, towards the pack of people and said, "The tree was trying to challenge me to an Agni Kai..." At this, everyone laughed again. "What? Everyone loves ATLA nerds. Blame my friends for that." Joker took her hand warmly and smiled. Elizabeth felt like screaming to the world that she was in love with him.

"Where are we going now?" She asked, voice going higher and higher with every word.

"Oh, back to the clock tower- I'm bored, and it has a lot of empty rooms." He said reassuringly. "So we'll go there."

The rest of the walk was trotted in silence, as they walked faster and faster so they could make it before the next time period.

**Why are they always walking when we leave off? Is it just me, or what?**


	6. Empty Halls

After walking in the forest for nearly another hour, Elizabeth had two contemplations:  
>1) It was a really, really big forest.<br>2) She was getting tired of walking.

"Hey, guys," she panted to catch up to Joker, Ace, and Styrr. "If you don't slow down one of you is gonna have to carry me!" Elizabeth finally caught up, and sat down. "We're resting," she said. "Now."

"Wow, Elizabeth, I didn't think you were that tired." Styrr said. "If you wanted us to stop you only had to ask." The red-haired girl said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, which, maybe it was.

"Well... I... didn't... think... I would.. be... the only tired one." She said, still catching her breath. "I thought you'd all be on your knees, too."

"On my knees for love, sure," the other girl shrugged. "But for physical overexertion, no." Joker walked over to Elizabeth, and she could only see his feet. Not that she hadn't gotten his face plastered all over the inside of her mine.

"Are you ready?" He said, bending down. "We should get going." He walked back to the front of the line. "I'm just here so a small number of this population that only survives on getting lost and murdering people doesn't force a poor, mostly innocent girl to a night in the tent again. I have a life, you know." Joker said flippantly. Elizabeth started walking again, watching him through slitted eyes. She hoped no one saw her.

"Well, I don't think the circus is considered 'having a life' since all you do is nearly kill people, and what's the fun of that?" Ace's voice rose over the leaves like water. Elizabeth nearly wanted to kill him for saying that to Joker.

Through her seething red anger, she heard someone call, "We're at the clock tower now! Can I leave?" and people going up stairs. She slowly walked towards the high steps.

"Hey, now." Joker said. "Aren't you going to ask me something?" His voice implied something dirty. Really dirty.

"Um, not really, but thanks for saving me from another night of Halloween-rated awkwardness." Elizabeth replied. Going back into her history, she hadn't ever been good with large, bumbling crowds of people, and she couldn't ever get a good halloween costume. Her recent costumes consisted of being wrapped in duct tape to look like a robot- and it was painful to get off- a bedsheet to look like a ghost, and saggy pants in an attempt to look like a gangster. No matter what she did, kids laughed at her until she stopped going out on halloween altogether.

"Really... I thought, since this was basically a double date," he said in a husky voice. _Date? _Elizabeth wondered. _I've never been on a date. How should I know?_ "Aren't you supposed to invite me someplace... secluded, like a room?" His eyes searched hers, looking for something.

"No, and just..." She tried to find the words to be mad, to yell hateful things, but she couldn't. "Could you please respect my privacy when I say I'm not ready?" She whispered, soft but loud enough for Joker to hear. She turned and ran into the clock tower. The halls were empty without a trace of voices or people.

Elizabeth was walking down the long, almost lightless corridor when she heard a voice. Coming from every direction.

Or it was just inside her head. Echoey, almost insanity-provoking, and speaking an ominous message.

_**It will happen tonight.**_The words bounced off the sides of her brain like a bouncy-ball down the staircase at her house. One way, then the other, all directions.

_**All the faces, they will all disappear.**_Elizabeth stopped, the voice was so loud and so awful that she couldn't walk anymore.

_**At the stroke of midnight, they will be gone.**_ She propped herself against a wall, her eyes wide in surprise.

_**Beware. Beware. Beware.**_She slid to the ground, her legs unable to support her anymore. She blinked in confusion, the voice was gone. The floor was cold, her cheek pressed against the tiles. Elizabeth got up, rubbing her face. She checked her watch- eleven fifty-nine. She started running. _I have to find them! _She screamed inside her head. She walked for a minute, and the clock beeped midnight. Only then did she hear a bloodcurdling scream. A never ending, hair-raising, bone chilling scream. The kind of scream that you scream when you know something horrible will happen.

Elizabeth ran towards the scream, terrified that someone had been hurt, killed, even. She burst through a door to find Styrr screaming and sobbing, all at the same time.

"What... what happened?" Elizabeth gasped through her panting. "Is anyone hurt?" Styrr looked at her through red tinged eyes. She looked miserable.

"He's... gone..." she whispered, horrified at the words. "Ace's gone." Elizabeth widened her eyes. She grabbed Styrr by the wrist and pulled her down a hallway. They burst through another door, finding a lonely Leanne. "Where's Julius?" Elizabeth asked. Leanne only looked at her.

"Oh no..." Elizabeth said, eyes going wide in confusion and fear. "We have to... I don't know!" She suddenly screamed. "Joker!" She ran towards the moon that she saw in the reflective glass, trying to find a way out of the tower in her frenzied panic. "Joker! Where are you?" Her feet thudded on the soft, brown earth.

The clearing was empty.


	7. Dream Demon, or Wannabe Pirate?

**I do not own ANYTHING. Though I would like to. Wait, I own Styrr. That's about it. The other OC's belong to my friends... -.-'**

**Anyways, Elizabeth has some issues in this chapter. And Styrr (FYI) since she's based off of... me... let me explain: Those of you who know Fruits Basket, I- and Styrr- are completely and utterly exactly like Hatsuharu. Personality-wise, with the "black" and "white". And I get cold really easily. And I'm violent.**

"Joker!" Elizabeth screamed his name, screamed bloody murder. She ran into the forest, only to stop herself. _You'll get yourself lost when it's so dark like this. Even if the time period changes, you don't know your way around yet. _She told herself. After several deep breaths, she heard a scream come from the castle.

"Oh, jeez," she gasped, running towards the sound. It came from a closed door. Behind that closed door, however, was a nearly hysterical Styrr in a black tank top and her black jeans. She was barefoot, and you could see the knives all over her arms, but she screamed like a child.

"Styrr! What happened?" Elizabeth called, worried. The redheaded girl looked up at her, eyes huge and watering.

"He's... gone!" She bawled. "Ace is gone! I woke up because I was cold and he was GONE!" Her voice rose to a high-pitched tone at the end. _Oh, Styrr, get over it already, it's not like he's dead, _Insensitive Elizabeth said inside her head.

"Come on," Elizabeth said. "Let's go find the others." She pulled Styrr with a little difficulty, as she was trying to pull her leather jacket on over her shoulders. Elizabeth's own clothes, the flowing silver dress she had worn to the tea party, seemed thin in comparison.

She burst through a door, trying to find the other once-Outsider. Leanne was sitting in a chair, staring at Julius's workplace. He was nowhere to be found.

"Leanne?" Elizabeth asked softly. The silver-haired girl turned her head. "What happened to Julius?" At this, the girl sighed softly.

"He's gone, isn't he," Styrr deadpanned. "So is Ace." Her face twisted into something that resembled someone who's about to cry and a face of rage. "They'll pay for this," she hissed. Elizabeth backed away.

"Ok, guys," she said, trying to ignore the hot, bubbling panic inside her. "Um... uh..." She stammered, the two girls staring at her with lifeless eyes. Then she started screaming. "JOKER'S GONE, EVERYONE'S GONE AND YOU WOULDN'T LISTEN TO ME WHEN I TOLD YOU SOMETHING WAS GONNA HAPPEN! NOW THEY'RE GONE, AND THEY MIGHT BE DEAD, AND YOU DIDN'T LISTEN TO ME!" All her breath left her in a quick second, screaming her voice raw. "AND WE HAVE NO CLUE AS TO WHERE TO FIND THEM!" There were tears in her eyes, she wiped them away.

"Elizabeth... Lizzie-chan?" Styrr offered helpfully. Elizabeth glared, pushing her away. The murderess looked hurt, but didn't take it personally.

"Just... go to bed. I'll see you in the morning," she replied stonily. She stormed off, hearing the faint sounds of crying from the room.

Elizabeth shut the door with a bang, not wincing when a piece of plastic fell from the ceiling. Joker was gone. She felt hollow, empty. Like there was nothing inside her.

She fell down on the bed, not taking off the gown, and fell straight into oblivion.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Apparently, her mind had other ideas.

She was on a gray platform, much like a train station. A single red train waited to be boarded. With a joy, she recognized King's Cross Station, from Harry Potter. The only things missing were the children ready to board the Hogwarts Express and that one policeman. The one that ate too many donuts.

She walked around, running her hands over the red steam engine when she heard someone clearing their voice. She turned around, back to back with the red train.

There was a someone with an eyepatch and a purple handkerchief- spotted with blood- floating a few feet away from her. He wore a faint smile, and chin-length gray hair, but he wasn't old. He looked about twenty-five.

Elizabeth reacted naturally. She asked him who he was. In a blunt manner. It went like this.

"Who the hell are YOU?" She asked, eyes quizzing his face. He only smiled. "I, my not-so-dear Elizabeth, am Nightmare. An incubus." Nightmare's eyes glittered as Elizabeth processed this information with a slightly affronted look on her face.

"... Aren't incubuses evil dream demons that rape women while they're sleeping?" She asked. "And you don't look very evil... more like a wannabe pirate with some type of weird posture." Nightmare grinned, showing his teeth.

"No. This is exactly why I didn't want to visit you- you seemed kind of critical. On the inside." He said, stifling a laugh. "But of course, my girlfriend Yuki forced me to come see you. She didn't know what happened, though."

"You mean that all the Role-Holders seemingly have disappeared?" She asked, innocent enough.

"Like your beloved Joker, yes." He said with a smile. "I don't like to read people's minds, but I can't really help it sometimes." He said. Elizabeth blushed madly.

"Could you tell me where everyone is before I- and more importantly, Styrr- go crazy?" Elizabeth asked, a little aggravated. "And if you've ever met Styrr, which I'm sure you have," at this, he nodded, "Then I think you should let me know before we get a load of pissed little violent girl on our hands."

"You need to go find Yuki first," he said. "She can help you, and she knows more about Wonderland than you. It's not like Styrr can help you manuever the place, as she can't walk three feet without getting lost." He said the last words with a chuckle. _So I'm not the only one doubting her abilities..._ Elizabeth's inside self said.

"How do I get out of here?" She asked, tired of the man's taunting grin.

"Just take the train, of course," he said, highly reminiscent of Dumbledore himself. With that, Nightmare faded into the backround. Elizabeth stood there.

"Well, no use in standing here. I have a murderess to restrain," she said. "Dammit, this is so complicated." She muttered to herself. She climbed up onto the red train, almost getting hit by the nice old lady with the candy cart.

"Sorry!" Elizabeth called after her. She hadn't meant to, but...

The train had started to move, faster and faster until Elizabeth sank down on the seat and the whole scene disappeared from in front of her.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

When she woke up, her head felt heavy and her eyes threatened to close again- if not for the needle-sharp dagger poised directly above her nose.

"Get. Up." A stern voice ordered. As she sat up, she saw a very angry Styrr with fire in her eyes pointing a dagger at her face. The redhead was sitting on the bed, glaring at anyone who walked by.

"Um, Styrr?" Elizabeth gulped. "Let's not be violent, okay?" Her tone was pleading. Styrr glared- like she was doing to everyone- and put the dagger back into its sheath on her arm.

"I hope you're fricking ready, because we're going somewhere. I don't know where, but somewhere," she said sharply.

Elizabeth nodded. "I do know where we're going. Do you know someone named Yuki?" At this, Styrr nodded. "Ok. We're going to get her- and we're not using your directions." Elizabeth got up, and blushed. "Do you mind lending me some clothes?" She asked, embarrassed. Styrr nodded again, going over to the closet to retrieve something normal- a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that read, "The Game- you just lost." She sighed- something normal to wear.

After she changed, Elizabeth went outside to find both girls out in the hallway already.

"We're going to find Yuki? Clover Tower, that is. She's most likely asleep in one of these rooms, but upstairs- way upstairs." Leanne led the way up the spiral staircase and into the first room.

It was empty. Same with the second, third, and fourth.

This was going to be a long search.

**Ok, I admit- Elizabeth doesn't need to hide her more sarcastic self when she's in dreams. Which explains the whole "WTF are you doing inside my dream, creeper?" attitude with Nightmare. (Sorry, Yuki! I'll make it better next time! I PROMISE!) Halfway through writing the last few paragraphs I realized... that the Clover Tower and the Clock Tower are usually referred to as the same thing... so... um... I fixed it.**

**Now, Yuki, you do what you promised. Andale, chile!**


	8. Styrr does not give good directions

**Dear everyone who reviewed- THANK YOU! I laugh because the reviews are funny... I don't know why they're always walking off when I end it... because personally, I hate cliffhangers. And seeing Elizabeth punch Blood would be hilarious. Though, when I think of it, Styrr might be more willing... as Blood does not care *hem hem* for Ace's lovable and awesome personality...**

After looking through what might have been over a million- wait, billion rooms in the Clock Tower, they finally reached the top floor.

By this time, Elizabeth was done with opening doors.

"The next time I see a door," she vowed, "I am going to kick it down." Proving her promise, they walked around a corner to see a whole new set of doorways. Smiling, Elizabeth walked over to the first door and kicked it. Hard.

Nevertheless, it didn't open. Or break. Or even crack. It was a door, and doors are supposed to be stronger than teenage girls.

A bout of laughter came from the other two girls behind Elizabeth.

"Wow, Elizabeth that was... uh..." Styrr started.

"Hilarious!" Leanne said, doubling over. "Don't break the house though." Elizabeth blushed. She had thought that she could do it... but apparently not.

"Let's try again, but I'll do it this time. My fingers are numb." Styrr went up to the door and turned to the side while she was kicking. The handle struck the ground with a clang and the door slowly swung open. "Done." She said.

"H-how did you do that?" Elizabeth asked. "Wait- swordsmanship, other weapons training, and martial arts?" Styrr nodded. Elizabeth's eyes went wide. "Oh..." she said. _I never want to meet her in a dark alley... especially when she's mad..._

"Hello?" A voice called from in the room. "Anyone there?" From the darkness emerged a girl with long sepia-colored hair, with slightly darker eyes. "Whaddya want?" She grumbled. Her eyes were weighed down with lack of sleep, and she had a blanket clutched around her.

"Yuki! Oh. My. Gosh. It's horrible!" Styrr flung herself at the girl, almost knocking her down. Yuki's knees almost buckled, but she somehow kept herself upright. "He's gone!" Styrr sobbed. Yuki gave her an awkward hug.

"You think I didn't notice? I woke up and all the blankets were on top of me. It was freaking blazing in there." Yuki said crossly. "Nightmare has obviously disappeared." She narrowed her eyes. "And we have to go find them now. Before Styrr goes absolutely insane." She stormed back inside and when she came out again, she was dressed in a short purple dress. Complete with a weapons belt.

Mentally, Elizabeth did a facepalm. Did everyone here have crazy weapon obsessions? Oh, wait... they did.

"Can we go now?" Leanne said crossly. The silver-haired girl glared at the brunette.

"Sheesh, Leanne, stop being so cross." Yuki said, bouncing up and almost knocking over anyone in a five-foot radius. "It's like an adventure!"

Elizabeth almost laughed. Then she remembered- Joker was gone.

And it kinda killed her short-lived moment of joy.

"Hey hey hey, let's get up and go," Yuki said to Elizabeth's severely depressed form. "Wow. You're Elizabeth. Huh. You're acting like an Ace-less Styrr." Styrr, meanwhile, was walking behind them. Looking really, really depressed. Especially in her all-black clothing. When she heard Yuki say 'Ace' she hurried up.

"Hi guys, what's up?" She asked, trying-and failing- at a peppy voice. She whispered something in Yuki's ear. Elizabeth caught the words "Elizabeth" "fancies" and something "Joker". She blushed red, and caught herself blushing. Yuki nodded, smiling, and then stopped the group of mildly-depressed lovers.

"Ok. Since I am renowned for being a stalker, I can try and guess where they are." She boldly stepped up on a tree trunk. For the first time, Elizabeth noticed the surroundings. "I think... whoever is evil... took them somewhere in THAT direction!" She pointed randomly towards a large group of trees.

"Fail, Yuki, fail. I propose we start walking." Leanne said. When Elizabeth whirled around to see if Joker wanted to come, her heart soared... and proceeded to get hit with an arrow of love and sink again. She still hadn't gotten it through her head that Joker wasn't there anymore.

"It's ok," Styrr said to her, suddenly beside her. "You're not the only one." Elizabeth looked at Styrr, really looked at her. The spark in her eyes seemed to have gone, and she was pale. Now that Elizabeth noticed, everyone looked pale and sickly. She wondered if it was from lack of sleep or from the fact that all the Role Holders were seemingly missing. She wondered briefly if she looked the same way.

Walking was really getting tiring, she thought to herself, and wondered if they were lost... which, she supposed, they were.

"Hey, Styrr, do you recognize- wait, why am I asking you?" Leanne said. "Yuki, do YOU know where we are?" The silver-haired girl shone in the darkness.

"No, it's too dark to see anything." Yuki's reply came from somewhere on her right. "We should stop here." There was a sudden halting to the footsteps, and in the distance Elizabeth could hear a coyote howling. She shivered.

"I have the tent!" Styrr's hyper-happy moment lasted a second. "Um... I'll set it up." She said, deflated. There was a flurry of movement and suddenly there was a fully equipped tent in front of them. _I'm not even going to ask where that came from,_ Elizabeth internally raised her eyebrows. Or maybe it wasn't so internal. She wasn't sure.

Walking in the tent with the other girls, there were four sleeping bags on the ground, with two lanterns hanging from the ceiling. Styrr pulled a thermos of tea from her pocket and poured everyone a drink of some strong-smelling berry tea.

"It's blueberry tea," Styrr added. "Ace... um.. left his jacket, and I thought, well, we might be needing it..." Elizabeth mentally slapped herself for not planning ahead. Also, for not noticing the drawstring bag that Styrr was carrying around. _How many weapons are in that bag?_ She mused to herself. _And if I ask, I'm not sure I want to find out._

Suddenly, all the lanterns went out like someone had whispered a breath and put out the flame. "Okay," said Styrr, "Everyone hand me the teacups. Don't break them." There was a clinking of cups, and the red-haired girl pulled the drawstring bag shut. There was a mutual feeling of fatigue as they all crawled into bed.

None of them, Elizabeth was aware, had fallen asleep. Their breathing was too fast, and the faint light from the stars and moon showed through the tent's roof. Four pairs of eyes were like shining witchlight runestones in the darkness.

Finally, lost in thought, Elizabeth drifted off to the world of dreams and reverie.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

"Where am I?" The red- well, more of an auburn orange, really- head looked around in confusion. "Why am I in a cellar? This is strangely reminiscent of Artemis Fowl. This place reeks of criminal activity." She chatted to herself. While her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she gathered that she was in a small room, not more than twenty feet, and that there was a cabinet to her left. Opening it, the door hinges snapped and the door fell with a thump. "I did not do that," she muttered to no one in particular. Inside was a chest.

Opening the strangely ornate box, she found a collection of odd items- like the ones she'd seen in her vision. A broken violin scroll, a dusty pipe, a pair of dual swords, a tattered scarf, a rusted chain. There was also a chipped teacup, patterned with roses, a scary-looking whip, a pocketwatch with the face cracked, a small ripped teddy bear, and a card. Flipping it over, she saw it was an ace- of hearts. _Like Styrr's Ace,_ she thought dimly. She set the box down. _And a teacup... roses? Doesn't that guy Blood love tea or something? And a whip... Joker has a whip..._

Elizabeth woke with a start in the silent tent. Everyone was still sleeping. Yuki had all the covers thrown off her, Leanne's hair was spread across the blanket like spider silk, and the only thing that was Styrr was a mound of blankets.

"Guys! Wake up!" She nearly yelled. Three sleepy faces turned her way. "I think I know what happened to all the Role-Holders," she continued. The only thing that followed her statement was silence.

"Someone transformed them into objects."

**I'M SORRY I'M INSANELY LATE! REALLY! I was so behind on this it's not even funny. I'm sorry. *gives you all hugs* I still love you all, ya know. I didn't forget you. So, if anyone caught them: References from Owl City, the Mortal Instruments, Artemis Fowl, and Avatar the Last Airbender. A little from the last one. The dual swords. From Zuko. Did anyone else notice that? No? Okay. It's official, I'm a nerd...**


	9. Elizabeth, meet your friend, NotClaire

**Hello! Sorry, for not updating. I know I've been a real bad girl, so don't... hurt... me... I hope I get all the OC's right. I want to know if they are good! SOMEONE TELL ME! Sorry if they're all a little bit mad in this chapter. I mean, if you got the love of your life suddenly ripped out of your knowing gaze, wouldn't you be angry too?**

All Elizabeth received was a blank stare from three multicolored sets of eyes.

"Are you_ kidding_ me?" All three of them said at once. Elizabeth nodded slowly. "What do they look like? Where are they? What is going on?" Yuki asked frantically. Elizabeth held up her hands.

"Well... there was this cellar... and I was in it, I guess." She started. "And I went over to a cupboard-ish thing... and there was a trunk. I opened it, and there were just little things in there." She said, realizing what was coming out of her mouth made her sound crazy. "What tipped me off was that there was a card, a playing card, with a single heart on it and... Joker's whip." She said. Leanne must have seen the hurt in her eyes, because she laid her hand on Elizabeth's.

"Well... what do we do now?" Styrr's question broke the silence, and everyone started yelling at once. To an extent, they were all yelling the same thing.

"_Obviously we go look for them!"_ An annoyed voice, Leanne's, came from the semi-darkness.

"We have to find a way to that cellar, if it's real. Then we have to find some way to unbreak the spell." Yuki's planning tone gave Elizabeth the chills.

"If we don't find them, who knows what will happen?" Elizabeth found herself yelling. She blushed slightly, hoping no one would notice.

"Okay, okay- I get it, jeez." Styrr said, affronted. "So we need to find them and break whatever magic hoopla that's going on here." Elizabeth knew that Styrr's red eyes were rolling, alone with the sarcasm in her voice.

"Uh... hoopla?" Elizabeth's small voice said questioningly. "Um..."

"I don't care about this right now, let's go back to sleep. In the morning, when we can actually SEE the sun, we'll set off." Yuki's voice sounded a bit annoyed that she hadn't gotten enough sleep.

This time, when they all laid down, no one was left awake.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

"Holy crap, that's bright." Leanne said, squinting up at the sun.

It was cool in the forest, the nearly unrecognizable forest, Elizabeth noted, and the sun was shining brightly down from the sky. Styrr had ordered everyone out of the tent, folding it up quickly with a grim expression on her face. She then had deposited it in Ace's red coat, and put that in her jacket pocket. How it fit, like the tent, Elizabeth had no idea.

"Where to?" Yuki asked happily, bouncing up and down on her toes. "Where to look?"

"Well... where's the most obvious place to look for something?" Elizabeth said, casting her eyes at the brunette.

"Um... Lost and Found?" She said, frowning. Receiving the Outsider's glare, she commented, "It is the most obvious place to look... you lose something, and go there to find it..." Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"Not what I meant." Elizabeth replied, rather sassily. She internally smacked herself. "Anyways, I think we should look in Joker's forest."

"You just want to go there because you think he's still there," Styrr commented dryly. Elizabeth blushed again, a red flush creeping up her neck. It was very visible in the sunlight.

"No, I just think... that we should go there!" Elizabeth retorted. With the nodding of the three girls' heads, she turned in a direction. Any direction.

"Do you even know where Joker's forest is?" Leanne's question hit her like a pie in the face. She hung her head in shame.

"Let's go..." Leanne said, pulling her sideways. "It's no use standing here, you'll never be able to kiss him if you stand there like some really wacked-up statue of a lost goat." Elizabeth's blush, still present on her neck, flushed to a deep red color.

After walking through the forest for about thirty minutes, she wondered if they were lost. In an hour, she was almost positive.

"Are we lost?" Elizabeth asked Leanne, who scowled.

"No, we're not! It's just a long way away! We're not all directionally challenged," she snapped, shooting a dagger-glare towards Styrr. The shockingly red-haired girl smiled and waved, and once again, Elizabeth questioned herself if the girl had serious mental problems. And knowing her, she probably did.

"We're here," Leanne said, still scowling. Since Elizabeth had only been in this forest at nighttime, she hadn't noticed the signs and arrows pointing every which direction. Every tree was covered in red, yellow, blue, pink, purple, and every other color signs. She was speechless.

"Wow..." she muttered. "This is confusing..." She wandered around from tree to tree, looking for any sign of a trapdoor. When she found a door embedded in the side of a tree, she opened it.

"Since this is the closest I've found to a trapdoor... I might as well open it," she whispered to herself, twisting the handle slowly in some kind of slow motion action movie scene.

"Well, how _are _we now, my dearest friend?" A cruel voice slithered its way into Elizabeth's ears. "Looking for someone?" Elizabeth looked up, only to see Claire- a horrifying Claire. Her eyes weren't blue anymore- they were black, and her hair a bleach-white. Elizabeth hadn't really ever noticed appearances- only extreme ones, and this counted as extreme.

"Who _are you?" _She screamed, pulling her fist back. "What have you done to Claire?" She swung, only to hit something hard. Not-Claire had caught her fist, and was pushing it back towards her.

"Ahh-ahh-ahh! No violence, peace is the answer, friend." Not-Claire said silkily. "Anyways, I'm going to make this 'game' a little more fun. Find the tree with a silver arrow, a brown arrow, a red arrow, and a white arrow on it and look around the back. There's the trapdoor you've been looking for." The evil girl's black eyes seemed to bore into her own. She swallowed.

"How do you change them back?" She asked, her voice a rasp. "How do you get them back to normal?" Not-Claire must have seem something in her eyes- something that made her hiss.

"So you're in love, huh." Not-Claire said dismissively. "Who is it, then? Not that cat, I hope. He's trouble on legs." She hissed after the last words.

"H-how did you know?" She said, quivering with fear.

"I could see it in your eyes, dear. Someone in that trunk is very dear to you." Not-Claire said, smiling. "Like I used to be." Shoving Elizabeth down, the evil thing shut the door with a bang, and it disappeared from sight. Elizabeth sat there, shaking.

"What's up?" Yuki's peppy voice came from behind her. "Find anything?" Helping Elizabeth off the ground, she talked as she walked. "We haven't found anything but trees, trees, and more trees. Oh, and some arrows." Her voice filled the empty space.

"Yuki, we need to find a tree. A special tree." Elizabeth deadpanned.

"Huh? Okay..." The brunette's voice trailed off. "Hey, Styrr! Leanne! C'mere!" She shouted to the others. When they had all gathered around, she started talking.

"We need to find a tree. A big one, I think. It has four arrows on it- one silver, one brown- chocolate colored, I think- one red, and one white." The words sped out of her mouth like a moving train. "Then we need to go around the back of it, and the trapdoor's there." She finished, out of breath. Four girls stared at one another, until someone cracked the ice.

"We'd better get going, there are a lot of trees in this forest."

**OKAY~ Hi. I'm sorry.. I looked back and saw that I never really had any kind of appearance for Claire. Um... sorry. Usually she has blue eyes and blonde hair. Blonde hair like regular blonde, not Malfoy. Um... on with the show!**

**~In the trunk~ (they can talk while they're in the object form... or communicate. Not really talk)**

**Ace: This is boring...**

**Vivaldi: How come we never got tea with Elizabeth? Not fair! **

**Blood: Everyone please shut up, and Elliot, bring me my tea.**

**Joker: Oh, some SERIOUS crap is gonna go down when we get outta this.**

**Nightmare: *coughs up blood* How could they curse a sickly demon?**

**Gray: Maybe it's the doctors again...**

**Julius: Now I'll have even more clocks to fix...**

**Gowland: I was working on a new ride! Crap!**

**... okay, it's not the most sane thing... so... um.. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED! **


	10. Glad to be back

**I. AM. SORRY! Again. I just spent a week being busy busy busy back home. I love home, it's like 95˚ right now back there. But anyways~ I will not have Blood killed. But we shall abuse his little object self. Mwahahaha~**

After searching more trees than there were grains of sand on the beaches is California, Elizabeth felt the same way about these trees as she did the doors in the Clock Tower.

"This is the fifty million effin' tree I've searched, and still no four effin' signs," she grumbled to herself. "Where is that stupid trapdoor?" As she walked to yet another tree, she gazed upward. Four wooden arrows were pinned to the tree with haphazard nails. The top one was white, the second was brown, the third red, and the last silver. She almost started crying, she was so relieved. Walking around the wide base of the trunk, she found a small trapdoor. Only three feet square, it looked awfully small next to the mighty tree, but it was the trapdoor.

"Guys!" She let out a yell. "I've found the stupid door, at last!" When the others came rushing to her side, she took a look at the trapdoor. It was weathered, and a deep brown, like mud. She reached for the handle.

The door in the ground swung open like it weighed no more than a feather. The darkness seemed to engulf Elizabeth. She stepped down on the only visible step. Dust flew in majestic swirls.

"Well, come on," she said, taking the hand of whoever was behind her and dragging the girl down into the grave-like hole in front of them.

"Oh my gosh, it's so dark down here..." Yuki's voice carried through the darkness. "How are we supposed to see _anything?"_

_"_Oh jeez," Leanne's voice filtered somewhere to Elizabeth's right. "Thanks for pulling me down into a darker-than-a stalker's closet-cellar, and not even thinking to bring something to see with." Her voice sounded annoyed, but Elizabeth didn't care. What she did care about was the fact that it suddenly became hard to move, like someone had turned all time to super-slow motion. The pipe was tucked into Yuki's pocket, while the pocketwatch hung from Leanne's necklace by its rusted chain. They were also each talking to something,

"ELIZABETH! HELP ME! IT'S SCARY DOWN HERE!" A voice screamed. She sighed.

"If you could _please_ get off me, Styrr..." She said, exasperated. She hadn't forgotten the fact that the vivid-haired girl had threatened her only two mornings ago.

"No, it's scary down here..." Styrr said, letting go of Elizabeth and clutching the nearest arm.

Elizabeth felt her way over to the cabinet in her dream. She pulled at the door, breaking it off with a _poof! _of dust. Three voices, accompanied with a laugh, said, "Oh great. You broke it." Elizabeth's face reddened.

"I could have done that much," Styrr said, smirking. "It's not that hard to break things." Leanne giggled.

"Oh, shut up." Elizabeth said crossly. "You want your boyfriend back, right?" A silence pressed down on all of them. A deadly silence. "I'll just get on with it, then." Elizabeth pulled out the trunk. It was heavier than in her dream, and less ornate. She dropped it on the ground, accompanied by a 'Be careful!' and several gasps.

She wiggled the lock, trying to see if she could possibly break it. "Does anyone have a pair of wire-cutters?" She asked into the silence. It was dark, she noticed, and for the first time in her life she was actually in complete, utter blackness. Out of nowhere a hand thrust a pair of pliers. She clamped them down on the lock shackle and squeezed. Nothing happened. She tried again, still nothing. When she heard muffled tittering laughs in the background, she asked, "What?"

Laughing hard, Styrr answered, "You make weird noises when you're struggling." Even Leanne was laughing, a polite little laugh.

"Let... me help," the silver-haired girl said, still giggling a little bit. She worked at the lock for a minute, then an audible _snap _ could be heard. A lock with a jagged edge was pressed into Elizabeth's hand- Leanne had broken the shackle off the lock, as it was now in two pieces.

Styrr rushed forward, throwing open the trunk's lid. It bounced three times, accompanied with groans of pain. Elizabeth backed away, but Styrr's hands reached into the box, pulling out... a teacup.

"This is quite uncomfortable, Miss Murderess. Change us back, please," a snide voice said, issuing from the teacup, vibrating against the bone china. Styrr threw it away, towards the non-illuminating light by the door.

"I don't want _you,"_ she said, voice hard as stone. Elizabeth walked forward, towards where she thought the trunk was. Instead, she tripped over it.

"Crap," she said, cursing herself in her mind. Sitting beside Styrr, Yuki searched for Nightmare, while Leanne stood precariously over them. There was small chatter, to fill the blank blackness, but she wasn't paying any attention to it. Plunging her hands into the box, she felt something hard and round, like...

"SNAKE!" Elizabeth screamed, not realizing that it was cold and unmoving. When the tree girls jumped, she apologized. "Sorry, it's... a whip." Several more curses were heard from the box.

"Really, Elizabeth, can't you tell? It's Joker." Joker's voice came from the whip. "Are you scared?" The whip- no, Joker- whispered.

"Yes," she whispered back. She hung the whip from her waist, and it said loudly, "Does this count as second base?" More laughter from the crowd of girls. Elizabeth turned redder than ever.

"Shut it," she muttered back to it, while the last breaths of the laughs were dying. "Shouldn't we take this outside so we can see?" She asked the three other girls.

Silence flooded the room once again. "... oh, _riiiight..."_ Yuki said, hoisting the trunk up onto the first step. "Dammit, you guys are heavy," she said, speaking to the trunk. Elizabeth guiltily picked up the fallen teacup from the bottom stair.

"Thank you, Outsider, for not letting those girls murder me." The snide voice returned. The handle vibrated between her fingers.

"My name's Elizabeth, not Outsider. And what's your name?" She asked, not liking the tone that the teacup used with her.

"My name is Blood. I believe we've met." Elizabeth gasped, so this was Blood's inanimate form. "You were the girl swooning over Joker that day at the tea party." A flush, once again, crept up her face.

"No I wasn't! I was just... admiring the sky!" While a taunting laugh sounded from the cup, she cocked her elbow back and stretched her arm as far as it could go.

And she let fly.

The teacup flew like a baseball- straight and true, into the nearest tree, where the rim chipped in several places. Curses- colorful ones, no doubt- vibrated with rage from the broken teacup.

A little ways away, the three girls were talking to each of the objects. The Ace of Hearts card was sitting on Styrr's knee, while the pipe was tucked into Yuki's pocket. The old pocketwatch hung from its chain around Leanne's neck. They were also each holding something in their hand and talking to it, too. Styrr held the dual swords, which were Dee and Dum, she'd explained. Yuki was talking to the clunky rusted chain, which turned out to be Boris. Leanne held a tattered purple checked scarf, Elliot March. Elliot had seemed sad when Leanne told him Emory wasn't with them. The broken violin scroll- Gowland- and the teddy bear- Styrr said it was Vivaldi, but Elizabeth didn't think it fitted- were discarded. Vivaldi wasn't talking, but the scroll was literally bouncing around in the trunk.

"I refuse to be discarded! I'm not going to bite, you know!" He enraged voice echoed in the confined box. Elizabeth kicked it shut.

"How do we break the spell?" Joker's voice made Elizabeth jump. "I don't wanna be like this forever." Elizabeth shrugged.

"I think NotClaire did it." She said, feeling childish. "She told me where the door was. So she must know," she muttered to herself. "If we defeat her, maybe it'll break the spell." She was broken out of her train of thought by a yell.

"Elizabeth! We have to go now. Back to civilization." Styrr yelled, obviously not aware that she lived in the wild more than half of her life in Wonderland. "We're staying at the castle." Elizabeth shrugged again, feeling passive.

"Let's go then. To the castle!" A cheer sounded through the forest. It thrummed with happiness, as did everything the Elizabeth did. She walked to a beat of music that no one else heard, but they all knew it.

All four of them- even Elizabeth- were happy that they had gotten their boyfriends back.

**Ok. Now let me explain: some of the object things are obvious, but some aren't. **

**Ace: is the card. **

**Blood: teacup.**

**Nightmare: pipe. (Because he's the caterpillar, and they smoke hookah pipes. Though if he's sick, he shouldn't be smoking)**

**Gowland: violin**

**Joker: whip**

**Dee and Dum: swords(because dual swords (in Avatar) are two halves of the same sword)**

**Elliot: scarf **

**Boris: chain (because he wears them... I couldn't think of a good object, okay?)**

**Julius: pocketwatch**

**Vivaldi: teddy bear**

**NOW... um... THANK YOU FOR REVIEWING~ I love you! I would give you a hug but I don't know where you live and if I did then... it would be stalking. I am not a stalker, Yuki is. And Peter. Answering questions in the reviews: Boris will be in the story, but Clover characters will not. Neither will Peter, because he annoys me. The only reason Joker is in the story is because I, personally, consider him part of the Heart no Kuni no Alice character cast, for a weird reason. So yes. Goodbye...**


	11. At last, we're home!

**The truth is, I have NO idea when they story'll end. But I know HOW it is going to end. The 2nd to last chapter will be heartbreaking. The last might be little comfort. So go on your merry way, pleases!**

The slapping beat of footsteps against dirt had become familiar to Elizabeth.

The time she had spent in Wonderland had been the most time she'd ever walked in her life. Being a non-athletic person, her legs hurt nearly every night before bed. Elizabeth smiled. She enjoyed being in Wonderland, yes, but she wasn't sure what might happen when this was all over.

Conversation had been peppy ever since they had found the Role Holders, smiles heard in ever word. Laughter rang through the forest like bird calls. Even Blood was making nice conversation, remembering the abuse he had suffered before they started walking.

"So, once we get to the castle-"

"Maybe we can all settle down for a night-"

"I hope there's tea there-"

"Yeah, the raspberry flavored one."

Elizabeth gathered enough to know that there really was no plan, once they arrived at the Heart Castle. Secretly, even though Joker and everyone else were inanimate objects that could magically speak, she was excited to see the castle. _I wonder if the Queen has pretty dresses, Victorian ones, even. I wonder if there are servants like in the Mafia's mansion. _

"We're here!" And overjoyed voice said. Looking around, it was, yet again, Styrr. "I haven't been here in months!" Elizabeth, Yuki, and Leanne all gaped at her with wide eyes and open mouths.

"Months? You're telling me you've been living in that tent for months?" Yuki asked, staring at her like she was the plague itself.

"That's disgusting," Leanne added, wrinkling her nose.

"Well, we slept in the Hatter Mansion and the Clock Tower sometimes, too," Styrr added, making everyone sigh with relief. The castle was adorned with so many hearts, it was amazing. Every space was cleverly filled with a heart. Walking up to the castle doors, one of the maids recognized Styrr, saying, "Miss, do you need a guide to your room?" Styrr laughed.

"Well, if you're willing to show us, Yetta." Following the maid, Elizabeth gazed up and down the grand hallways of the Heart Castle. They weren't as heart-adorned as the outside, but they were neat, clean, and royal-looking.

"Here is your room, Miss- er, I mean Styrr." The maid named Yetta bowed. Styrr smiled and waved.

"Thanks!" She called after the departing maid. "I know people. And I insist on them calling me by my first name..." She turned the doorknob to reveal a room. It was surprisingly pink for the red-obsessed girl and the psycho mass murderer's room. There were large collections of fancy Mardi Gras masks on the walls and racks of swords all over the place.

"Wow, it looks just like it did last time!" A joyful shout sounded from the little card in Styrr's jacket pocket. Everyone laughed, in spite of their plan-less minds.

"Elizabeth can sleep on the couch," Styrr thoughtfully said, "and I'll sleep on the floor. Leanne and Yuki can have the bed, I guess." She shrugged. Elizabeth manuevered over to the couch, it was in an almost separated room with a bookcase. Elizabeth yanked the blanket off the back (and of course, it was red) and laid down on the couch.

"If you're aiming to suffocate me, you're doing a pretty good job." A mocking voice said. She jumped, and immediately felt a fresh wave of guilt. Joker was still on her hip.

"Ah- sorry!" She apologized. Joker made a scoffing noise.

"Yeah, I know. I didn't mean to snap like that." He said, apologizing after Elizabeth had. "Goodnight," he said after a while. Elizabeth fell asleep almost instantly- she didn't know how tired she was.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Again, she wasn't in the blackness of sleep.

Why couldn't she just have a peaceful night?

She was on a sailboat in the middle of a blue-green lake. The sailboat wasn't huge, only around ten feet long. It was heavy white plastic, with a handle towards the end and a bunch of ropes that she didn't know what to do with. The boat was still, there was no wind, and the water was cold.

She wished Joker was there.

"Fantasizing again, aren't you?" A voice said from behind her. Nightmare was sitting opposite her on the little boat. "It'll get you nowhere." He coughed once, and snapped his fingers. Suddenly there was enough wind to set them off at a gentle pace.

"Please tell me you know how to steer this thing," she said desperately. He grinned a huge grin. "Oh. My. Freaking. God. You don't. We're going to die. We're going to tip over and drown and die. I'll never see Joker again. I'll never see anyone but YOU and we'll both be so dead-as-a-doornail dead!" She screamed the last part. Nightmare chuckled.

"Drama queen, aren't we?" A voice came from behind her. She felt herself yanked backwards, landing in the water. "Stop freaking out. You're not going to die." Yuki's long brown hair tickled Elizabeth's wet face. Her face tinged red in embarrassment and exhaustion.

"C-can you h-h-help me up?" She chattered. Yuki pulled her aboard her little boat. It was tiny- way less than hers. The sail said 'bug'. "You h-have a small boat." Yuki handed her a towel.

"Thanks for offending me." Yuki frowned, while Elizabeth apologized. "Don't worry, I'm just yanking your chain. Get back on your boat." A shove from behind made Elizabeth barely miss the water and tumble back on to her boat. Yuki climbed aboard.

"Well, now that I'm wet and totally pissed at you... why am I here again?" She asked, tone every bit as mad as she was.

"We wanted to ask you something," Yuki's voice was uncomfortable. Elizabeth shrugged.

"What are you planning to do when this is all said and done?"

The question hung in the empty, wordless hair.

"Well..." Elizabeth squirmed. "I guess I'd go back home..." Yuki's eyes flashed. "What's wrong with that?" She asked defensively.

Nightmare took over from there. "If you go back, you'd have to take Yuki and Styrr with you." Yuki slumped. "All of these Outsiders in Wonderland, it's just too much. It's not that we don't adore you," Nightmare shot a look at Yuki, who smiled in return, "but if you all go back, it would be like Wonderland was normal. It needs normal- too many Outsiders for too long doesn't do well to anyone. Styrr's here, so more people are being killed, I'm spending less time in dreams, and if you fall for Joker, less circuses will be performed. Everyone's on overload." With every word, Yuki slumped down more, and Elizabeth's eyes filled with more and more tears.

"I don't want anyone else to be unhappy," Elizabeth started. "Styrr would be really depressed if she went back." Yuki sat up again.

"You don't remember." She said softly. "It's no surprise." Her brown eyes filled with tears, bowing her head so her hair fell in her eyes.

"What?" Elizabeth said, alarmed. "Remember what?" Yuki climbed aboard her 'bug' boat with Nightmare and sailed away.

"What don't I remember?" She screamed after them. She only heard sobbing in response.

Confused, Elizabeth sat down on the boat. There was, once again, no wind. The lake was cold, green, and menacing.

She jumped in the water, and woke up.

**HOW'S THAT FOR A CLIFFHANGER? yaaaay!~ I guess. Not much to say.**


	12. You're not who I think you are

**I was going to say something important, but I kind of forgot it while I was typing the words that make up this chapter. Sorry! Sorry sorry sorry!**

Elizabeth woke up shivering.

There wasn't much to explain; the blankets were across the room, one over the whip, a couple even managed to escape out the doorway. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she made her way to retrieve them.

"Damn, that was some dream," she muttered, wadding the blankets into a heap and throwing them on the couch. "I'm not sure why I jumped." Plopping back down on the couch, she mentally reviewed the weight of the information that Nightmare had given her. _I wonder... if all these Role-Holders have some actual role in the original story, then Blood must be the Hatter. It's kind of obvious. Elliot's the March Hare, oh, right. Elliot MARCH. March Hare. So that must mean Vivaldi's the Queen of Hearts. _She looked around. It was quiet in the pink bedroom, and even though the sun glared through the windows like it had a personal grudge against the Outsiders, they all remained asleep.

Elizabeth kicked a chair. No one woke up.

_Dammit! Seriously? Tear them away from their boyfriends? _She shivered. _Styrr will be so upset, and Yuki... I don't know what she'll do, but I swear, it won't be good. Yuki will probably be really depressed... _She looked around again, focusing on the brunette and the red-haired girl. _Oh my God, I'm going to ruin their lives. Wait... Nightmare didn't mention Leanne, or Emory. I wonder... is Julius the "time" figure in Alice in Wonderland? Then Leanne must be something like Mother Earth, or whatever. And Emory... I don't know. _

"Elizabeth?" A voice called from outside the hole in the wall. "Hey, are you awake?" A miffed Leanne stepped through the door. "Come on, we need to find that evil girl from yesterday." She took Elizabeth's hand and pulled her through the doorway. Outside the small room, everyone was getting ready. Leanne had on a long coat and jeans. The coat looked exactly like Julius's except that it was bottle green, and the trim was a dark blue. _Earth colors,_ she thought randomly. Yuki had on a pair of purple checkered converse, faded jeans with doodles all over them, and a shirt that had a big shape of Italy on it with japanese characters across the front. Styrr had on white striped tights, a black jean skirt, a red shirt, and a white jean jacket. In Elizabeth's view, she looked a little... gothic. Without makeup.

_Wait,_ she thought randomly again. Her head hadn't really started functioning yet. _I know I've seen that shirt before, the Earth one..._ When Yuki caught her glance, she grinned.

"Like it? It says Hetalia," she pronounced. "It's an anime, about world history." When Elizabeth smiled back, Yuki looked away. _And Styrr's outfit... I knew someone just like her, and Yuki too. The Styrr I know was actually named Tristian, and was a total bookworm, and Yuki's name was Bridget, and she loved anime. I saw them at school and stuff..._ She squinted at both of them. _They look exactly like the real people. What happened to them? _She racked her brain. Kidnappings were horrible, she knew, and frequent enough in her city. _The girl Tristian had moved, and she apparently ran away... and Yuki? Bridget- she had been kidnapped. Pronounced dead, too, they never... _A jolt as Leanne pulled her forward, whip swinging on her hip, Leanne's watch- Julius- swung from her neck. _... found her body... and maybe they came here? To Wonderland? _Soon they were in the forest, trees hovering overhead like a leafy ceiling, birds circled like vultures. _After she ran away, Styrr's parents moved back..._ She stopped, pulling her hand out of Leanne's.

"What is it?" Yuki questioned when she looked back and saw Elizabeth, standing with a serious expression on her face, feet planted apart and hands in fists, on her hips. One knuckle touched the leather of Joker's whip form.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She said coldly, icy tone nearly freezing her own tongue. "Why didn't you tell me who you were?" Tears welled in her eyes, she wiped them away, thinking, _Stupid self, I shouldn't be crying. I can't cry, I have to be strong..._ Styrr and Yuki, obviously put on the spot, looked uncomfortable.

"What do you mean?" A chorus of two voices asked her, breaking the silence. "I'm Styrr, ya know, the murderess... she's Yuki, the dream demoness, I guess you'd call her..." Styrr's voice trailed off into the distance, lost in the rustling of the leaves and the harsh _caws_ of the vulture-birds up above.

"You're not Styrr." She pointed a finger at them, shaking. Subconsciously, she noted that the bones were crooked, bending her finger. "You're not Yuki." She turned to Leanne. "I don't know who you are, but you have a role and Emory... Emory I don't know about either." She pivoted back to the other girls.

"Tristian, and Bridget," she accused. "I remember you."

Wide eyes met Elizabeth's slitted ones.

Yuki's mouth dropped open, her hand raised up to hide it. All eyes turned to Styrr, except Elizabeth's. Evidently they knew something else she hadn't.

When Elizabeth wrenched her eyes back to the gaggle of girls. Yuki, standing there, looking as through she was trying to find the words to speak. Leanne, eyes half-closed, with an air of _I-told-you-so _surrounding her frame.

"Oh my God, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she stumbled over to Yuki, slinging both arms around her. "Oh God, I didn't mean to..." Yuki hugged back. Even though Elizabeth was tall, Yuki was taller, so it was a little awkward. "I was wondering if you wanted to go back."

Yuki immediately stiffened. "No." When Elizabeth tried to reason, all she got was a hard "No."

"So, must we go on with this beauteous journey?" Leanne's voice cut through the hug like a hot knife through watermelon. "Let's get moving, jeez."

The familiar pitter-patter of steps soothed everyone, until they were all relaxed. So relaxed that they noticed something.

Something quite strange.

"It's so... quiet!" Leanne exclaimed, suddenly pleased. "Peaceful!" The trees had stopped rustling, and the birds weren't chirping. Everyone noticed.

"Wow, I never thought it would get this still!" Yuki's smile was heard in her voice. "Amazing!"

"Isn't it though?" Leanne's voice filtered through the trees' leaves and Elizabeth's thoughts.

_When I said the word "Tristian", Yuki's eyes went huge, and Styrr sort of... froze up, and... I turned away._ Elizabeth stopped once again, eyes growing horrified instead of slitted in anger.

"Blaming us again?" Yuki's voice, slightly annoyed, broke through her train of thought.

"No..." Elizabeth said. Yuki looked confused.

"Then what?" She asked, arms crossing.

"Did you notice that someone is missing?"

**Oh jeez. I feel like an idiot. Another cliffhanger.**


	13. Love makes us liars

**Oh my cupcakes. 41 reviews? OMC. 41/12=? I dunno. I'm too lazy. I won't be in November, but in the month of November I dunno if I'll be posting because I'll be working on NaNoWriMo. I have a vague idea what my story will be about~ I'm so excited! ****ANYWAYS~ thanks for reviewing and reading this! And yet again, I know I'm horribly late with this chapter! Feel free to scold me on the prospect of punctuality!**

"Nope. No one's gone." Leanne said, patience seeming to wear thin.

"Yeah. We need to find NotClaire..." Elizabeth said. They walked through the forest, light shining through the leaves like the dappled coat of a cat. Soon, the light fell away and an orange sunset replaced the golden sunlight. After walking through clearing after clearing after clearing, Elizabeth wasn't really beginning to see why they were even going.

"Come on!" She complained. "We're getting NOWHERE!" The last words were accented with a furious hand thrust. Joker chuckled.

"Getting a bit impatient, Elizabeth?" The whip seemed to vibrate on her hip as sound issued from it. "Don't worry. You'll find her soon enough."

"Well, could you at least tell me where to find her?" Elizabeth snapped, feeling as pathetic as the female leading role in one of her enemy's favorite books. _Twilight, _she thought with so much utter disgust, it took all her willpower to scream. _That pathetic excuse for a book had better NOT be a part of this violence-operated Wonderland._ "What will happen after I do find her?" Elizabeth asked, hating how her voice sounded small and far away. (**A/N: As many can see, I hate Twilight. Bella's pathetic.) **

Joker chuckled darkly. "Oh, after that- my bet is that we all get poofed back into our normal human selves, and the chaos reigns once again." There was a definite sneer in his voice, and Elizabeth could imagine him silently laughing, those maroon eyes sparkling like sparkling cranberry cider, and his hand on hers. She could almost feel those slim fingers on her wrist- _Damn, am I really thinking about this now? Dammit! I have to find NotClaire! Stop thinking. Empty the mind. LIke a frickin' chamber pot. _

The wind seemed to whisper through the trees, carrying a message from Elizabeth's new enemy. "Elisssssabeth," it seemed to hiss, butchering her name like a pig to the slaughter, "you're allllmost there..." Elizabeth kept turning around, startling everyone- even herself.

"Damn." Yuki sounded awed. "I haven't seen anything like that since..." Her sentence ended, staring ahead.

Elizabeth looked up. There, where Joker's circus should have stood, was a huge, open-faced stage. There were lights lining the edge of the floor, and in the middle was a microphone.

"Ah, you've come," the speakers boomed. "How quickly you must have hurried to get your precious Role Holders back." It spit out the word 'role-holders' like it was green poison. There was no one at the microphone, but it continued to issue forth sound just like some kind of sick, twisted concert.

"You'll never get them back," it sneered. "They'll all die when I smash them to dust. One. By. One." Laughter curled around them like ribbons. Elizabeth felt sick to her stomach.

"No you won't," Elizabeth choked out, eyes defiant under her strawberry blonde hair. The other joined her rebellious protest. "No you won't!" The rage in their voices got stronger. Even the Role Holders tried to help, the trunk vibrating on the brink of breaking. Elizabeth held out her arms to halt her fellow Outsiders.

"We'll bring them back." Elizabeth held a strong tone, one she hadn't ever used- she'd let people talk over her back home- and halted the laughter.

"Fine," it jeered, fading into nothingness. The click-clack of stiletto heels brought their attention to the left of the stage. NotClaire was walking in high silver boots, her white-blonde hair held up by a shimmering red ribbon. Her dress was dark blue, almost black- like the midnight sky on her first night here- and her eyes had changed color. Instead of being black, they were a startling- yet oddly stunning- gold. "I knew you'd come eventually." Her voice, like a dagger wrapped in silk, grated one Elizabeth's ears. "Your other little friend already came. She chose the right choice." Following NotClaire came a person- a certain, black-clad person, someone very recognizable.

Styrr sulked out of the backstage room, outfitted with a new set of clothes. Her hair, while still red, was hidden by a black hat. Her black clothes had been exchanged for a black top and a black-and-red checkered skirt with little tiny ballet flats. She looked awkward and uncomfortable. NotClaire smirked at the expressions on Elizabeth, Yuki, and Leanne's faces.

"Anyways, I have to admit, I was a little surprised. I didn't expect this-" she spat is Styrr's direction. "Yet it's very satisfying to have your own kind come to my side. The revenge, as I might call it." Styrr slinked to NotClaire's side. "Her name is not that one that meant battle- Styrr is actually a boy's name. Meaning battle. It disgusts me. Her new name is Red."

NotClaire paced around the stage, seemingly thinking. "Since she's mine now, I want you all to drop the Role-Holders and walk away- far away. Go back to where you came from, if you can find it." Her dress swished around her legs, but it didn't impair her walking. "If you refuse, then get ready- to battle your friends as well as your enemies." Her chin tilted up, in an aloof gesture that set Elizabeth's nerves on end.

"I refuse!" She shouted. "I will battle you. I will battle her. I'll fight all of you." She walked around her friends, like she could somehow protect them. Glances her way assured her that she could do it. Elizabeth, the 'peace-loving hippie' as she was called when she was younger, preparing to fight. Elizabeth, who had never touched a blade in her life. She stopped walking.

"I refuse too," a cool voice said from behind her. Leanne had stepped up beside Elizabeth.

"That goes for me too," Yuki said, all the happiness gone from her voice. NotClaire grinned.

"Good," she said. "Once you're part of the game," she remarked, "there's not turning back." Not Claire stepped back, running her hands through her hair. Flinging something towards the lights lining the stage, she smiled a vampiric smile.

Fire sprung up all around them, closing them off from all other parts of Wonderland. NotClaire stepped up, beckoning with her fingers and whispering in Styrr- Red's ear. Red's eyes hardened, and she ran straight at Elizabeth.

"Quick! Give me something!" She gasped to her friends, still flanking her. Leanne solemnly handed her a handgun. Yuki gave up her elegant rapier (that Elizabeth didn't know she even owned) and Elizabeth's own side felt heavier. The whip.

Armed with her three weapons, she ran at Red, brandishing the rapier. Red quickly drew a sword and gave a swift cut to Elizabeth's hand, staining her clothes red. The rapier, once elegant, now reddened by blood, flipped back and embedded itself in the trunk of a tree. Elizabeth drew the whip next. Only the handle was leather, she noticed, as the rest was a black kind of wire.

Red took off her hat, and with a flick of her wrist, it was turned into a walking arsenal. The edges were rimmed with saw-toothed diamonds, the top sprouting wicked little daggers. Elizabeth held the whip in her hands while Red stared. The hat was burning in the walls of the fire encaging them.

Flicking her own wrist, Elizabeth was surprised at the momentum that fueled the whip. It flew towards Red at a dizzying speed, curling around the hat and quickly sliced it to ribbons. The red-haired girl looked simply stunned before Elizabeth pulled the gun out of her pocket. She stared at it in her hands, the intricate black designs on the sides, the fabric-wound handle. She shakily pointed it at Red.

"Hmmm," NotClaire's voice exploded from the speakers, unseen all around them. "For a girl who's never touched a weapon, she's pretty proficient. I never would have guessed," it faded before finishing the sentence. Elizabeth returned her glare to Red, the traitor.

"Dammit, Styrr- I mean, Red." She spat out her words too. "Too thin-skinned to face the truth." She readjusted the gun once more. Slowly pulled the trigger.

The bang echoed across the stage. Red fell- not in slow motion, but like a duck from the sky. NotClaire evidently had a sound booth, because the shot was replaying over and over again on the speakers. Elizabeth forced herself to walk down to the stage.

"Where are you?" She screamed. Noticing that she had more than twenty bullets left, she starting shooting- randomly, across curtains, windows, anything in her path she shot down with bullets. NotClaire stepped out of the sound booth.

"Issues." She stated, sleekly walking towards Elizabeth. Elizabeth held up the gun once more- one bullet left. She couldn't miss.

At point-blank range, she stopped. Held out her arms, saying, "I dare you. I dare you to shoot me. Try."

Elizabeth aimed. Readjusted. Aimed. Readjusted. Aimed once more for her heart. Her fingers were slippery with sweat.

Holding a gun in one hand a whip in the other, Elizabeth shot a gun for the second time in her life.

This time, she didn't miss.

**THIS CHAPTER... wasn't really hard to write. It's sort of the climax in the story. It kinda freaked me out when I was writing it- and NotClaire was really hard to write! I made her just like Valentine from City of Bones, but a bit different. So, uh, thanks! And sorry for being late!**


	14. Back to normal

**Wow. This is a really long chapter... longer as chapter 4, which used to be the longest. I feel so happy~ I got this done and 13 in less than 5 days... right? I hope I did. Anyways~ the ironic thing (for myself) was that I was listening to "Bring Me To Life" while writing this, and uh, it was ironic because now... uh, nevermind. It's just complicated, ok? Please read and review~**

Elizabeth's former best friend fell with the gracefulness of a feather.

Well, a feather dipped in tar. The reality is, she sank like a stone. Elizabeth dropped too- not because she had been fatally wounded in any way- but because her knees had suddenly went weak and been unable to hold her weight.

Elizabeth stared at the mess she'd made. The stage was burning from the flames NotClaire had summoned, oddly reminiscent of the burning World Trade Centers, and blood was pooling from the hole in her chest. Yuki's elegent sword was lodged in the tree trunk like King Arthur's. Leanne's handgun was nowhere to be found- they'd retrieve it later- and Styrr's sword stuck in the ground like a deathly beautiful monument.

Elizabeth stumbled back to her friends after wrenching the rapier out of the tree trunk- carefully, she worried the thin metal might snap. Handing Yuki the rapier, it transformed into a tiny silver pendant of an old-fashioned candle that she hung around her neck on a thin chain.

Leanne was tromping through the bushes, trying to find her elaborate pistol. Once she had regained her gun, they huddled around ten feet away from Red- formerly Styrr- and stared.

Yuki made a disgusted noise. "I don't think I can look at her," she whispered throatily. Leanne nodded, hand over her mouth. Elizabeth backed away slowly.

"Should we just... leave her there?" Elizabeth wondered aloud. Leanne looked about to reply when a sudden vibrating sound startled them.

The whip Elizabeth was holding had started to vibrate violently. Same as the pipe Yuki had forgotten about in her pocket, and the clock around Leanne's neck.

The whip was the first one to burst into an explosion of multicolored glittery sparks- Joker appearing among them, looking extremely angry at Elizabeth.

"You know, it kind of hurt when you used me as a weapon," he stated, seemingly controlling his anger. "Oh, and you might want to put all the other people on the ground before they explode your clothes off." He snorted as the tree girls scrambled to dump the rest of the trunk out on a grassy area and stumble backwards as the rest of the Role-Holders cursed at them.

A huge firework display of glittery sparks lit up the recently changed night- some were pink, some were yellow, and some were purple. Some were so bright that Elizabeth had to look away to protect her eyes.

A huge, wriggling mass of person had taken the place where the objects once stood. With Vivaldi sitting daintily on top, Elizabeth almost had to laugh at the awkwardness the other men had to be going through.

Vivaldi delicately stepped off the pile onto the soft grassy ground, holding Elizabeth in her gaze. "Thank you, Outsider," she said regally, "for undoing that unlawful curse. Many heads will roll if the perpetrator is not dead yet," she added, eyes sparkling like she was doing Elizabeth a favor.

Elizabeth hurriedly said, "Oh, no, I already... uh.. defeated the enemy." She snapped her hand to her head in a form of a salute. Yuki laughed.

The wriggling of the men commenced; a pink cat-boy was the first to escape. Walking towards Elizabeth, he held out his hand and smiled.

"I'm Boris," he said with a smile that reached his eyes- that were evidently yellow-green and cat slitted. "Wanna hold my gun?" He asked innocently, pulling out a gun from nowhere. Elizabeth sighed- evidently Wonderland was still as crazy as ever.

"No, no she would _not, _go away, you Cheshire." Joker shoved the boy out of the way. The Cheshire cat winked and slinked away to another man. Nightmare struggled out of the pile- coughing blood, no less. Nothing new there. Yuki took his hand. Elizabeth felt another urge to take Joker's hand. Julius was over by Leanne looking quite emo because of all the clocks he'd have to do, and several of the Role-Holders were still on the ground- scarred, mentally, from what just happened to them. One of those people was Blood, who was cradling one arm to his chest and sporting several black-and-blue bruises. He glared at Elizabeth as he walked by.

"If that ever happens again, I will set the mafia on your ass," he muttered as he walked past her, earning a kick from Joker, who was being oddly protective. Elizabeth blushed at the thought. Pushing it out of her mind, she realized that they were going to get nowhere if she didn't do something productive, so she did what women naturally did to get attention- she screamed.

"GET YOUR BUTTS OVER HERE IF YOU EVER WANNA GO HOME!" Elizabeth screamed, gaining the attention of every single person there, save for Styrr. She even- surprisingly- got Blood's attention, who was still glaring out of an absolutely beautiful black, blue, purple and- yuck- yellow eye.

"We need to get back to the regular part of Wonderland," she started, "and fix whatever the hell happened here." She motioned at the wasteland of once-shiny stage (that was still burning, surprisingly).

"We need to get back before the paperwork fills up the entire mansion," Elliot stated, looking rather disgruntled.

"And before clocks start piling in the doorways," Julius said crossly. "This whole thing has been quite the disadvantage." Elizabeth's cheeks flared color, but she kept her inner idiot (who was making appearances less and less) under control.

"Now, children," Elizabeth explained, meeting the ever-more frequent glares of the adult Role-Holders, "we have to get back now." Half-dragging Joker along with her, she started off into the forest, realizing she had no idea where she was going.

"On second thought, Julius will lead us back through the forest of dark and scary things," Yuki said thoughtfully. Elizabeth laughed, having the words stolen right out of her mouth.

"Wonderland ho!" She shouted, giving in to her inner idiot- who hadn't had enough sleep and was acting like she was drunk- and grasped Joker's hand. Yuki laughed along with Elizabeth all the way into the forest, until one of the four people had realized that they'd been betrayed.

"I hate crushing realization," Elizabeth spat, eyes darker than midnight. "I hate being betrayed too," she added with a hiss. Staring back at the clearing they'd left Red in, her blood began to boil- until Joker started carrying her bridal style.

"Wh-what?" Elizabeth stuttered, face going cherry-tomato red. "What the hell, Joker?" She shouted in his face, only causing him to smile.

"You were delaying the possible enjoyment and disgust of love that will be taking place in a while," he said, still grinning, "and I didn't want to miss it." While Elizabeth screamed profanities, he still smiled sweetly, like his mother was praising him.

It wasn't until Elizabeth started singing Disney hits that he put her down. She was in the middle of "It's A Small World" when Joker dropped her on her butt.

"That hurt," she said, pouting at Joker. He laughed again. His laugh was like apples, she thought, if apples had a sound.

"Well, my ears hurt from your tone-deafness," he joked. She punched him on the shoulder while Yuki and Nightmare stood from the sidelines, muttering something about releasing sexual tension.

~OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO~

So this is what Joker called disgusting love. Arriving at the clock tower after everyone else, Elizabeth experienced first-hand what disgusted the circusmaster so much.

Leanne and Julius were laying on the couch, staring into each other's eyes while holding hands tightly. Once in a while they would twine together and kiss. Yuki and Nightmare were sitting by the fire- Nightmare wrapped in three down comforters and Yuki in a t-shirt and shorts. Their heads were bent together, but Elizabeth didn't hear any whispering from that direction, so that only left her to believe that they were 'snogging' as her British-loving friends would say. Even Red and Ace had arrived (mysteriously) before them, Ace taking Red into another room to bind her wounds- but that was an hour ago. Ace was probably just listening to her heartbeat now.

After occupying the only other chairs in the room, Joker and Elizabeth had gotten quite bored of watching the couples. Elizabeth was counting the number of broken clocks sitting on Julius's desk (for the fifteenth time) and Joker was enjoying himself by uncoiling his whip and then coiling it back up again.

"Hey," Joker said for the fortieth time. Elizabeth stared back at him with dead-looking eyes. "Uh, nevermind."

"What?" Elizabeth said, curiosity sparked. "What were you going to say?" Joker squirmed in his seat.

"Uh, nothing." His eyes betrayed his words. Elizabeth scooted closer to him.

"What were you gonna say?" She said, louder this time but not overly loud. "Tell me," she begged. "Please?" Joker looked away.

"Fine," Elizabeth said, pouting. She was about to turn away when Joker leaned in and kissed her.

Her eyes closed instinctively, melting into his arms like butter. She put her arms around his neck, bringing him closer and pressing their lips together more. She twined her foot around the leg of the chair to scoot it in...

When six pairs of hands started clapping and six people started cheering.

Elizabeth pulled away, blushing once again like she usually did. Leanne was clapping from the couch in Julius's lap, who was clapping too. Nightmare and Yuki were clapping too, a huge smile gracing Yuki's face like a child had gotten a king-sized candy bar. Styrr rode piggyback on Ace, shoulder bandaged but clapping all the same. Ace was whooping like they were at a football game and the St. Louis Rams were winning for once.

Embarrassed, Elizabeth pulled farther away from Joker. He only pulled her closer until she was sitting on his lap.

"You're not gonna get away this time," he whispered in her ear. "You're mine." She giggled and blushed.

"It's not a new story," she said snappily to the six onlookers. Ace shrugged and dragged Elizabeth's empty chair to the fire, sitting himself and Styrr in it. Leanne, Julius, Nightmare, and Yuki resumed their recent agendas.

"Joker?" Elizabeth said sweetly, turning to look at him.

"Yes?" He said, maroon eyes searching hers.

"I'm glad you were my first kiss," she said, laying her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes.

**YAYYYY! JOKER KISSED ELIZABETH! I'm so happy! I KNEW I wanted this to be their first kiss. We were all waiting for them to overcome the sexual tension to actually do it. Yup~**


	15. I hope it gives YOU hell!

**Eh... this chapter isn't as good as I wanted it to be... tell me if you like it, are iffy, or absolutely hate its guts with the intensity of a nuclear bomb. . I know, I'm a bad person...**

Even after NotClaire died, there was a lot of stuff to be done.

Joker's circus had to be repaired (as it turns out, NotClaire had demolished his circus to build her stage with eccentric lighting), Julius had to work overtime on all the clocks that were having a serious traffic jam in his bedroom, Blood had to do paperwork, and Ace had to go on a massive killing spree to collect all the clocks that hadn't shown up when they were supposed to.

Obviously, Elizabeth was in the middle of directing a couple of workers towards the scrap metal when the crushing realization hit her. She was in love with Joker, but she was going to have to leave. She almost cried, but then the noticed that she was on top of a very large, very tall crane, and if she broke down crying she'd fall off and most likely... die.

"Crushing realization sucks ass," she muttered to no one in particular. When the workers stared, she said, "Hey- I just wanted that to be acknowledged."

Climbing down the extremely steep ladder, she hopped onto the ground with huge relief. Joker was a few feet away, trying to stand unnoticed, but Elizabeth noticed him immediately.

Love does that to you.

"Aieeee!" was all that could be heard when Elizabeth ran as hard as she could towards the circus master. Barreling into him, she knocked them both to the ground.

Joker made an _oomph_ sound, eyes wide. "You know you're worse than Styrr when she's hyper?" He said in a half-affectionate, half-annoyed tone. Elizabeth smiled, then considered the statement.

"Eh, I could have tried out for football, but I didn't," she said, mulling it over. "I bet I could have even made out the team..." Joker laughed.

"You're too skinny to hit anyone~" he said, laughter in his eyes. Elizabeth punched him in the arm, just to spite him. She then rememebered: Joker didn't know that she still wanted to go back. He didn't know that she was going to ruin part of his life, along with all of Wonderland. Her smile disappeared instantly.

"Hey- did I say something?" He asked, eyes wide with fright that he'd done something wrong. "I'm sorry- I didn't mean it..." His voice trailed off, still frozen in place. Elizabeth snapped out of her unhappy daydream and quickly assured him.

"Oh, no! You didn't do anything wrong... I was just zoning out with an unhappy expression on my face!" Elizabeth blushed. "I was just thinking that I should visit Yuki and Leanne," she heard herself say, pointing towards the forest blindly.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Joker blurted- the moment he said it, his face was redder than a Christmas bauble. He clapped a hand over his mouth before saying, "I mean, so you don't get lost and then eaten by Dee and Dum..." Elizabeth laughed and held his hand.

"Do they eat people?" Elizabeth asked, stealing his hat and placing it on her own head. "You know, Dee and Dum."

"Ahh, not really..." He said, looking away.

"You don't have to be so embarrassed," she said. Kissing him lightly- barely even counting like a kiss. Their lips only brushed, but both of them blushed- heat reverberating off their faces. Some of the workers cooed.

"Uh, I guess I'll be going..." Elizabeth said, pulling away far too quickly to her liking. Walking quickly into the forest, she noticed a couple things. 1) This was the first time she'd been in the forest alone, and 2) that it was dark and scary and she did wish Joker was here with her...

"No," Elizabeth said aloud. "I will not rely on my male counterpart. I am a strong woman... girl... whatever." Walking a few more steps, she cracked.

"Damn... freaky.. forest!" She exclaimed, nearly stepping on a protruding root. "It's trying to kill me!" To no one in particular, she asked, "Ah, I wonder if everyone's okay." After a few more minutes, Elizabeth decided it was too silent.

Humming to pass the time, she tried conjuring up songs in her head. _All-American Rejects, Simple Plan, Green Day- all good bands_, she thought to herself, _and not enough publicity. _

Humming a snappy little AAR tune, she skipped along the dirt road that led to the Clock Tower, glancing away from the ghostly shadows that scared her.

~OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO~

Evidently, Elizabeth's little hum-ish little tune went to a little sing-song, then became a full-out American Idol audition. She was singing with all her might at the trees, squirrels, and dirt.

"When you see my face, hope it gives you hell, hope it gives you hell," she chanted, strumming with her invisi-guitar. "When you walk my way, hope it gives you hell, hope it gives you hell!" Her fingers strummed the strings, going to her knees at a solo. "When you find a man that's worth a damn and treats you well," Elizabeth drummed her invisi-drums, "Then he's a fool- you're just as well! Hope it gives you hell!"

All to her embarrassment, Julius walked out of the clearing ahead- she was almost to the Tower. Julius didn't look happy- the anti-social clockmaker looked absolutely murderous.

"I should have known," he said, sighing. "You were the one making all the noise." He glanced toward the tower. Ace waved from the window, looking like he always did- idiotic. He was laughing.

"Aah- sorry. I was having fun with that song," Elizabeth apologized. "I didn't mean for it to get that loud." Julius grunted and pointed up the stairs.

There wasn't much radio silence, so the minute they got on the stairs, Julius asked, "It seemed like you were singing that song to someone," he said, eyebrows raised. "Whom might it be?" Elizabeth blushed.

"Oh, uh, if you really want to know, it was to Styrr," she admitted shamefully. "She kinda betrayed us, and tried to kill me..." Julius looked up.

"Well, you might want to talk to her about that." Was all she heard. Looking up at the stars, she identified the Ursa Minor, which she called Ujurak, after a bear in one of her nerd books. She stumbled to the stairs, climbing each one with a growing level of confidence. She walked into the room with the fireplace (which she assumed was Julius's workroom) and her confidence crumbled.

Like a dry cracker.

**I dare you all to find the one line in this chapter that literally killed me to write. Yes, I want YOU to message me about it. **


	16. A Locked Room is an Unhappy Room

**Ahahha~ I'm sorry for not updating... I have no other reason than to blame homework, MEAP testing, and a question about tea that got me really, really excited. Don't ask. Won't tell. Anyways~ I had to torture Elizabeth for some fun, isn't that what all authors do? OH~ and the line that killed me to write last time? The one that mentioned Ace being idiotic, or something of the sort. Yeah. So. Here it is. You might as well know that if I owned HnKnA, Alice and Blood would die. **

Elizabeth regretted ever opening the door. Because, when she did- well, let's just say it wasn't simple.

Closing her hand around the non-decorative doorknob, she twisted, noticing that the bronze metal was impossibly cold. Upon opening the door, several things happened.

1) She noticed the window was open

2) She noticed it was snowing

And Nightmare was standing in front of her with a quite worried Yuki standing behind him. When Nightmare lurched towards her, Yuki darted forward to catch him, and succeeded- but Elizabeth received a face full of blood.

"Ew! Oh my God, ew!" She said, more shocked than anything. Blood dripped down her shirt (which was one of her favorites, depicting Owl City's very own Adam Young) and glared.

"Dammit, Nightmare! Adam Young's face is ruined!" She screamed, rather childishly. "His beautiful face now looks like my worst nightmare!" Nightmare looked guiltily away and Yuki nearly fell over, she was laughing so hard.

"Oh... my... god... Elizabeth!" Yuki said, gasping for breath. Her eyes were bright, hints of laughter tears at the corners. She was clutching her stomach with one arm and supporting Nightmare with the other. "I... cannot believe you! The look... on your face! When you scolded Nightmare! It... hahaha! It looked like he had just murdered your cat and ate it for tea time!" She collapsed, leaving Nightmare standing there looking at her like she'd gone crazy.

"Um, okay...?" Elizabeth said, giggling a bit, because, really, who couldn't laugh after that fiasco? "I need to know where Joker is," she confessed, staring at the floor with yet another red flush creeping up her cheeks.

Yuki got up, (quite dignified, even for a person who had just collapsed laughing) and pointed to a room across the hall. The smile never left her face.

"He's sleeping, you know," she said, slinging her arm around Elizabeth's neck and dragging her to Joker's room. Opening the door rather loudly, Yuki shoved Elizabeth inside and locked it.

"Have fun!" She said with another twitter. Elizabeth whispered through the crack in the door, but no one listened.

Elizabeth went to the corner farthest away from Joker's bed, where a mysterious lump was lying there like a rock. Occasionally, it would move slightly, or grunt, leaving her to the conclusion that it wasn't dead, and was most probably Joker.

A candle on the bedside table illuminated strange shadows on the walls, flickering ghosts of something possible evil, possibly not. A Japanese screen in the corner hid let another lump, with the candle's light she could identify some kind of clothing. A belt with several weapons on it lie on the floor like a dead snake, casting a shadow like almost everything else. A stray lock of her own reddish-blonde hair floated down and touched her nose. Elizabeth left it there, too lazy to do anything else.

In a distant thought, she remembered she had a hairpin. Reaching up to pat her strawberry-blonde locks, she felt it- that little twisted piece of metal that girls used to pull their hair out of their face. She tiptoed over to the bedside table, careful not to make any noise, retrieved the candle- which was a dark blue color, she noticed- and went back to the door.

The lock was old-fashioned, as was the exquisitely decorated doorknob. It reminded her of Harry Potter's doorknob- the one with the flying key that Quirrell had almost tore the wing off of. Inserting the pin in the lock, she had a new thought- not so distant this time.

_She didn't know how to pick a lock._

"... Bloody hell..." she whispered to no one in particular. She tried twisting it, making a horrible grating sound from inside the lock. Elizabeth tried twisting it the other way. Same noise, no luck. Taking out the bobby pin, which was mangled to the point of being called a mutated paperclip, she threw it at the Japanese screen.

Which conveniently tore. A coin-sized hole had appeared in the white paper, showing red and black clothing.

Voices from the outside room caught her attention. _Nightmare and Yuki must be talking_, she thought, _about me or about each other?_

"... are you sure you put her in the right room?" Nightmare's voice filtered through the door like smoke. "I thought Joker's room was that way..." Silence for a moment, not the awkward kind, but the kind when you realize you've messed up everything.

"Um... let me check..." Yuki's voice was unsure. A pitter-patter sound, like footfalls, was getting softer and softer. Yuki opened a door and had an unintelligible conversation with the person inside.

"Oh my god..." Yuki's voice sounded worried. "Where did I put the key?" Noises like books being thrown could be heard- louder than the scratching that Elizabeth had made, and the noise was sure to wake the inhabitants within this room.

Raucous laughter could be heard from the common room, followed by several "Shhh!"'s. The lump on the bed moved. By the way it moved, Elizabeth could distinctly make out _two_ shapes, not the one. A small figure sat up lazily.

"Yuki!" Elizabeth screamed. "Where's the freaking key?" At the noise coming from the outside and the inside of the room, now both people were woken up- and as far as she could tell, _extremely_ not happy.

"I found it!" The shrill squeal echoed throughout the hallway, as Yuki came scurrying towards the door.

"What the hell are you doing in my room?" A dazed voice said, hoarse from sleep and from the sound of it, yelling. Elizabeth edged closer to the door. "Hello?" the person said, confused.

Elizabeth bolted towards the door, scrabbling along with Yuki for the handle. When the door finally opened, Elizabeth all but fell out of it at Yuki's feet, kicking the door shut and locking it once again.

"What is your _problem_?" She asked the older girl. Yuki offered a hand, helping Elizabeth up. "Why on earth would you lock that door?" Yuki shook her head, a grin on her face, leading Elizabeth back into the common room.

Julius stood there, arm on Leanne's shoulders, holding a cup of coffee and looking like he wanted to beat someone with a clock. Nightmare lounged on the couch, holding a blanket and a cup of hot chocolate. Two mugs of hot, steamy liquid were on the table by the fireplace, giving off multi-colored steam. Elizabeth wondered if Leanne was magic.

And Joker. Joker was standing in the opposite hallway, looking highly affronted, as though someone had personally insulted him. He too held a cup of coffee, and he was wearing the clothes Elizabeth had last seen him in. He eyed Elizabeth as she came in, face softening into a small smile before taking a sip of coffee.

"What happened?" Julius's bitter tone broke the warm silence between Joker and Elizabeth. "Why was there screaming and why are my books scattered all over the room?" Elizabeth, along with Yuki, felt an immense shame.

"I'll the truth- I was locked in a room by Yuki." Elizabeth said, crossing her arms. "And no, it was certainly. Not. Joker's room." She turned to face the brown-haired girl. Catching the eye rolls from Nightmare, she added, "not that I would want to be in Joker's room... um..." Everyone laughed, with the exclusion of Julius, who still looked as though his sister's innocence had been corrupted.

"I thought it would be funny," Yuki said, for a defense of some sort. "I wanted Joker to wake up to an Elizabeth attempting to hide herself in a corner." She smiled at everyone.

"Thanks..." Joker said. "I really am honored, but I'm going back to bed now." Approaching Elizabeth, he pecked her on the cheek and stormed off to his room. Julius and Leanne wandered back off to whatever they had been doing, and Yuki sat on the couch by Nightmare.

"You need a snuggie!" Elizabeth exclaimed rather loudly. After being shushed by both of them, she covered her mouth and continued in a whisper-like tone. "It's like a blanket, but with sleeves! You _so_ need one, Nightmare! They come in all colors and stuff, too!" Elizabeth stopped rather abruptly and started laughing.

"Wow... I sound like... a TV advertiser!" She declared, shaking her head. "Like that ShamWow guy, or the OxyClean guy!" After receiving several strange looks from the couple in front of her, she defended herself. "You know, that one TV guy who yelled at you? _OxyClean gets the tough stains out!"_ She broadcasted, awarding herself more stares.

A sudden clang and several stomps could be heard, along with an irritated voice that remarked, "Who sounds like a genderbent Billy Mays?"

Ace, in an all-black shirt and pants with red lining, stepped aside to reveal Red- not back to her regular, semi-irritating Styrr self. Draped around her shoulders was Ace's coat, underneath was a blank tank top with black jean shorts and her thigh-high boots. All accusing fingers pointed to Elizabeth, who turned to Yuki. "How could you not love Billy Mays? He's the best advertisement ever, aside from the singing hamsters!" The winner of several more blank stares proceeded.

"I'm going to bed- have fun with your hamster fantasies," Ace proclaimed. Styrr followed suit.

"Well, as that wasn't awkward in the least," Elizabeth muttered to herself. "Can I go to bed too?" she asked Yuki, sleep deprivation finally arriving in her hyper mind. Yuki nodded, leading her to the hallway opposite Styrr and Ace's, opening the door, and shutting it with a click.

Elizabeth collapsed on the floor, not bothering to reach the bed- she really was tired.

Somewhere between a dream and reality, someone yelled. The yell sounded masculine, and surprised.

"Yuki! Why the hell is Elizabeth on my floor?"

**Thinking back on it, the Styrr vs. Everyone else thing reminds me of this friend I had... and we don't talk anymore. If we do make eye contact... well, that's about it. It's kinda sad. So, sorry if I made Yuki too OOC or anything. It was relatively easy to write this chapter once I actually started sitting myself down and writing it...**


	17. Pixelation Progress

**So! Hi! I've been busy with school and NaNoWriMo, which has taken up a LOT of time. You're all lucky little mates, you are. But I digress. This is short... sorry. ^.^' I came up with it on a whim and my inner idiot told me to GET ON WITH THE FRICKIN' PLOT. So here it is... oh, and I forgot to mention. I LURVES YOU ALL FOR GIVING ME REVIEWS!~ in an appropriate way for people I've never met. I haves da love~**

"Wh-what?" Joker's surprised voice came from above Elizabeth's head. "Why are you on my floor?"

Rubbing her eyes, Elizabeth sat up. "This is _your _room?" Inside her sleepy mind, she thought, _Yuki... you're going to get it now. _

"Yeah, and... seriously?" Joker sounded disbelieving. "I can't believe she put you in here." Elizabeth opened her eyes.

Joker was standing in front of her, hair wet, with only a pair of baggy pants on. Water dripped down his back, and maroon hair looked mahogany in the light.Elizabeth blushed a little, and shifted her hair so it covered her face.

"I think Yuki thought it was empty," she said slowly. "I crashed on the floor when I got in here, so... I guess it doesn't matter." Joker laughed.

"Ha, it doesn't matter. You slept on the floor! I hope your 'it doesn't matter' will be bothering you all freaking day, and I don't want to hear about it." Elizabeth blushed- was Joker saying he actually cared whether she slept on the floor or not? Oh, right, of course he cared. He was her beau.

"Eh, it's not like there was any room on the bed," Elizabeth joked. "You take up a lot of space when you're sleeping, Joker." Joker immediately flushed a bright red.

"Well... well, but... um," he stuttered, the blush spreading from his face all the way down his neck. "Let's go outside," he suggested. "See everyone." Elizabeth nodded, standing up from the floor, she noted that her back ached slightly. Grasping Joker's hand, she led them both out into the common room.

Outside, the six other people that resided in the Clock Tower at the moment had all gathered for breakfast. Scones, doughnuts, even waffles- _I didn't even know they had waffles here! _thought Elizabeth- and tea and coffee for all. A silver label that bore the words 'non-caffeinated' indicated the tea had no caffeine, and since Yuki and Styrr had similar cups of the purple liquid, Elizabeth was glad that it didn't.

Everyone was chatting happily about the prospect of winter. She was glad they were all getting together, since she had forgiven Styrr about the whole thing on betrayal. This is what Elizabeth got out of the winter conversation.

Nightmare's perspective: "Winter's too cold, it makes me sick all the time! Not to mention all that snow, and it makes it harder to travel." Elizabeth expected as much.

Yuki's perspective: "I love winter! The cold is awesome! And snow makes good snowball fights! The ice helps too- you can ice skate, and stuff..." A surprise there- she was dating the most needy incubus there was!

Ace's perspective: "It makes it fun to camp~ and all the snow makes it harder to get out of the tent sometimes, though." As expected.

Styrr's perspective: "I hate winter too! It makes me all cold... but then there's the tent thing. Which I don't mind." Of course.

Leanne's perspective: "Winter makes the clock tower more magical. The whole place looks like it's make of silver powder." An odd perspective, but that doesn't mean it wasn't interesting.

Julius' perspective: "It makes it harder for my clients to come, so I guess I like it." ... um, okay. Work, work, work. Yet again, ladies and gentlemen, this is Julius.

Lingering outside of the conversation, Elizabeth leaned on Joker's shoulder. With a jolt she noticed how much taller he was than she. Brooding on this fact, it took only about two seconds for Joker to realize something was wrong.

"What's wrong?" Joker asked over the loud laughing of the others' conversation. "Did I do something wrong?" Elizabeth shook her head. "Then tell me," he urged.

"You're... so much... _taller _than I am!" Elizabeth pouted like a little girl. "You're all, tall and stuff, and I'm just short!" She huffed a little bit- getting worked up wasn't good, but he was really tall.

Everyone fell silent, one question going through their minds:

**_"Did she really just say that?"_**

Then they laughed. Loud, obnoxious guffawing, little titters, just plain laughter. Everyone seemed to find it funny that Elizabeth was short.

"I mean, in my school I was tall! But you're taller!" Elizabeth knew she sounded about three, but she didn't care. Joker winked and gave her a kiss on the top of her head.

"Don't worry, you're cute as a shortie," he said, snickering. "Love ya all the same." Everyone was still laughing. Elizabeth pouted.

Suddenly, the air turned somber as Nightmare, Yuki, and Elizabeth all locked eyes. An understanding went between them.

"Everyone, I have an announcement," Nightmare said, "that might, um, traumatize some of us." Looking pointedly at Styrr, he continued. Elizabeth hugged Joker to the point that his breathing was constricted. Joker looked down at her with a puzzled expression.

"These Outsiders are going to have to go back home," Nightmare said. A collective gasp ran through the crowd of eight people. "Leanne can't since she smashed her vial. It was a long time ago, too. But Yuki, Elizabeth, and Styrr never found theirs. And they're going to have to leave." Yuki held Nightmare's hand like a lifeline.

"Why?" Leanne asked, looking around at all of them. "Why do they have to leave? These are my friends," she said, reluctantly releasing a tear.

"Too many Outsiders at one time," Nightmare stated matter-of-factly. "It's throwing Wonderland out of balance, and it's not like I want them to go." He met Yuki's gaze and gave her a small kiss on the cheek.

"What about Emory?" Elizabeth asked, still constricting Joker's lungs. "Did she smash her vial or what?" Yuki sadly looked at her lap.

"Emory left," Nightmare sighed. "Before Elliot even disappeared." Elizabeth hugged Joker tighter.

"Poor Elliot," Leanne murmured. "Poor _everyone._" All eyes went to Elizabeth and Joker, who was unfortunately turning blue.

"Elizabeth," Joker struggled, "let go of me before I pass out." Embarrassed, Elizabeth let go of Joker.

"And you're... okay with this?" Nightmare asked, eyes traveling to the dent in Joker's stomach where Elizabeth had gripped him.

"Well..." Elizabeth twirled her fingers in midair. "I don't want to leave, but..." _but I know I have to go home to a life I didn't like. But I know it's right but I want it to be wrong._

"I have to... but I don't want to. But I have to." Elizabeth pushed her tears, already evident on her face, onto the floor. "I just want to spend as much time as I can with you," she muttered, turning to Joker. A few tears slipped out of her eyes and onto her cheeks.

"Hey," Joker said, drying her tears. "It's not like I'll never see you again. You'll see me in your dreams," he whispered, and kissed Elizabeth. He let her go and towards Nightmare. Yuki was still holding Nightmare's hand and Styrr was kissing Ace. Per usual.

"Just stand there," Nightmare instructed. "Don't move."

A blueish-white light began to surround the Outsider's bodies. Leanne stood silently as the others gaped in amazement and sadness. Elizabeth, Yuki, and Styrr's forms began pixelating before their very eyes.

One final shout formed with the three girls' mouths.

"I love you!"

**/shot. Seriously. This is so short. But I've been doing NaNo. I'm going to post something from my NaNo novel below!**

_My name is Tristian Wren DiAngelo, and I'm a Greener._

_I suppose you could call us immortals, too, because of the operation we had as kids- but Greener is what the public calls us and I'm okay with that._

_My advice to you right now- put down the book. Burn it. Ditch it on the side of a Michigan highway for someone else to pick up. Don't open the book. _

_If you've heard this before, then believe me- this is not some joke. I'm serious. If you think you are a Greener, or are in any way associated with a Greener, an organization, blah blah blah, you are in very. Deep. Trouble._

_Put the book down and walk away._

**And then from later in the book:**

_"Oh jeez- it's locked," I explain. "Look for a back exit," I whisper, pushing Kay off by herself. She feels around the back wall when something bleeps._

_A small red dot in the speakers pulses once, twice, and I realize what is happening._

_There's a bomb in that speaker._

_"Kay!" I scream, scrambling for Siv and grasping the empty air for Kay. "Kay!" Kay's outstretched fingers grasp my own, and she rushes toward me in a full-on hockey check. The final blips of the bomb tick down._

_Blip. The air smells like sweat and ice cream and faintly of gunpowder._

_Blip. Kay's heavy, labored breathing matches my own. Siv has his arms around us both, and we all take a breath together._

_Blip. Three, two, one. If we're Greeners, will we survive an explosion or will be be blown to bits like these mere humans all around us?_

_Blip. The bomb's last tick sounds. _

**Okay, so it's dramatic, and has LOTS of explosions, and the thing I put as my profile picture (the green unicorn) is my plot unicorn. It gives me stress, strife, procrastination, and above all, INSOMNIA. But eh. I love it.**


	18. Surviving the Aftermath

**HELLO, ALL! I'm sorry I haven't updated in, like, ever. I was doing NaNoWriMo in November, and I still haven't finished with the novel, but I've done this, and something on dA, and a oneshot. So, I'm back! Hope you likey!**

"Ouch!" The protest was heard over the white noise that had erupted around them as they fell through a seemingly endless vertical tunnel. Strange lights swirled around them, giving Elizabeth a headache. She squeezed her eyes shut, thinking, _Oh, please let it be over... _As soon as that thought was processed, the ground and her body had an uncomfortable meeting.

"That hurt, Elizabeth!" Yuki's loud protest was annoying, at least to her ears. Actually, everything was annoying to her ears. The birds, singing their goodnight lullabies, grated on her ears. The light from the nearest street lamp blinded her. The kinetic energy that she could basically feel buzzing all around her angered her to no end. She sat up, and one could only describe her as _totally pissed off._

"What?" Elizabeth snapped, swiveling her head around to glare at the girl. There were leaves in her hair, caught between the strands, and when she looked down, Elizabeth's clothes were covered in grass stains. Immediately, she noticed something odd- she was wearing the clothes she came to Claire's party in, and Yuki was wearing some jeans and a t-shirt. Styrr had a white long-sleeved shirt and a black skirt on.

"Where are we?" Yuki asked, eyes wide and teary as she glanced around the yard of Claire's house. Elizabeth tilted her head back, meeting the cool granite of Tristian, the angel fountain. "We're... we're not in Wonderland anymore." The tone of her voice was enough to induce tears in even the coldest-hearted person. Elizabeth crumbled inside, worried that she'd made some mistake. She could feel the tears at the edges of her eyes, but suddenly the pressed vanished from her eyes and the water evaporated. _I will not cry, _she willed herself. _I am not allowed to cry. _

Oddly enough, Yuki was the only one crying. The trio of girls sat in a stony silence that pressed down on Elizabeth like water. Not even a little bit of water, a whole ocean of silence washing over them all. She felt the need to clutch at her throat, but she pushed the urge down.

"Yuki, Styrr," she began uncertainly. _I'm sorry I took you away from Wonderland. I'm sorry we're in this town where no one gets what they want and time passes like glue. _"We should go to my house." Two nods replied her request, and as Elizabeth got to her feet, two pairs of legs followed her.

The silence continued all the way back to her house. The slap of her feet could barely drown out the shouts of her former friend- "Elizabeth! Liz! Come back!"- but she surged forward at each shout. Afterwards, the only sounds that could be heard were the bass beats of the too-loud music at Claire's house and the three sets of footfalls that were leading away from said house. Staring at the ground, Elizabeth's throat tightened and her chest felt oddly empty. She found it hard to walk, and what more, she found it hard to breathe.

"Elizabeth, what are you doing... home?" The front door swung open to reveal her mother. Lifting her head from its pathetic perch parallel to the ground, Elizabeth saw her mother in her sweatpants and an old band t-shirt from a U2 concert. The insignia, like everything else in the world, aggravated her to no end.

"I'm home from Claire's." Her curt tone cut the silence like a hot knife through butter. Her mother stared openmouthed, looking from Elizabeth, to Yuki, to Styrr, and back to Elizabeth. "These are some friends. Can they sleep over?" The question had no answer except for a simple nod of her mother's head, and Elizabeth stomped up and over the doorway on her way inside the house.

Yuki and Styrr tiptoed behind, confused about everything.

Elizabeth continued her path of apparent anger up the stairs, shaking the foundations of the house as she stormed up the wood flooring. You could hear the picture frames rattling on the walls, glass vibrating like disturbed water. Once the three girls were all in the room, Elizabeth shut the door and took in her surroundings.

Yuki was on the bed, sniffing miserably and wiping her eyes every few seconds. Her skin was pale and drawn, and dark circles were evident underneath her eyes.

Styrr was in the corner of her room on the beanbag chair, laying on her side and staring blankly ahead.

And lastly, she glanced in the mirror. It was a large, rectangular mirror, smeared from the many years that it had hung in her room. There was a small crack in the center, where she'd thrown her pillow at it in anger when she heard about her friend's betrayal. Her eyes glanced upward, at her own reflection.

She looked a mess. Her hair was filled with leaves and dirt, and her shirt was covered in grass stains. Unluckily, this was the same shirt that couldn't be bleached and had to be hand washed. Her jeans were dyed green too, but that could be fixed. Her face was red and puffy, and the tiny bit of mascara and eyeliner that she had put on before the party (which should have been long gone by now, but apparently wasn't) had run all down her cheeks with the silent tears that she was not aware of crying. Quickly, she wiped away the black smudges with her sleeve- her shirt was ruined and she didn't care anymore.

Elizabeth felt cliché, crying over 'her only, lost love' like a girly girl. She never thought she'd be the one to get a boyfriend, and there she was, in Wonderland, falling helplessly in love with Joker. She hadn't even gotten a year with him. Not even a month. Three weeks, and most of all, two days to actually live in the prospect of being in love.

A sniffle broke her out of her unhappy reverie. Yuki was on the bed, tears absolutely flooding her face. Elizabeth slowly, almost mechanically, moved over to the bed and sat down beside her friend, hugging the sepia-haired girl and whispering, "Sorry, sorry, sorry." She sounded like a lunatic and again, couldn't care less. She had ruined the lives of four very important people in her life. One, her own life. Two and three, Styrr and Yuki's lives. Fourthly, and most importantly, Joker's life. Elizabeth wondered miserably- and quite pathetically, in her perspective- what he was doing now. Of course, he was probably rebuilding the circus that NotClaire had knocked down. The thought put in her in an even more advanced state of misery.

"I'm sorry," Yuki sniffed. "I'm really sorry." Her eyes were red and puffy, not unlike Elizabeth's own. She nodded, accepting the apology. She turned to the other soul in the room. Styrr was still staring at the side of her bookcase, unmoving and unresponsive.

With small, jerky movements, Elizabeth reached up and turned the light off. Yuki slid down until she was lying down, and Elizabeth grabbed a blanket and settled with the floor. The entire room was a melting pot of miseries.

Watching the shadows on the walls, Elizabeth fell asleep.

**line break line break liney liney line break~**

_Tap, tap, tap._

Elizabeth woke to the sound of raucous tapping. Grumbling, she got up from her makeshift bed on the floor, wiping her eyes with her sleeve and moving over to the window, where stones seemed to be hitting the surface every five seconds or so. Opening the glass wide, she stuck her head out and yelled.

"What are you doing?" The dark figures on the ground below seemed to be laughing. Elizabeth squinted.

_It couldn't be!_

**Yes, yes, yes, so I decided that this story wouldn't have a depressing ending after all. Yay for them. Sucky end note.**


End file.
